


Filling the Gaps

by BBRosenfeld



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adventure, Allura (Voltron)-centric, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Blades also appears, Canon Compliant, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Gap Filler, Gen, Humor, Kaltenecker appears, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Light Angst, Lotor is not nice, Maybe - Freeform, Pidge is also a chemistry and biology nerd, Team Bonding, Team as Family, With A Twist, dumb humor, first voltron fic, give it a chance, inconstant updates, interactions, more or less, thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-09-28 17:57:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17187680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BBRosenfeld/pseuds/BBRosenfeld
Summary: The path of the Paladins is arduos and well-known. However, there's so much that we don't know about them, and some people can't help but wonder... What happened in between the strife?OrAn actual effort in team bonding, building Allura/Lance and giving Lance a decent character arc.(First chapter will probably be revised)Ch. 10 - What entails to be BlueLotor's intervention leaves the paladins rather rattled, but nothing much can be done for now. Meanwhile, Allura reflects about the moment she connected with the Blue Lion.





	1. Getting settled

**Author's Note:**

> I love Voltron. I love the show to bits, even that unnecessary heart breaking finale. But there's so much stuff that don't add up in the story, and then some situations that I wanted to happen, and NEEDED to happen but didn't... So, I took it in my own hands and decided to fill the story with some headcanons, as weird as they could be lol.  
> However I will not stray from canon (too much). I want to respect the original show and the efforts of the production team, so I won't dwell on the stuff that happens in the episodes. But outside them... MWAHAHA.
> 
> [Ahem] I'll try to not focus too much on a single character, but Lance and Allura are my babies, so that might be a recurrent problem...
> 
>  
> 
> Season 1 - Right after Ep1 and defeating Sendak.

They did it.

They defeated a giant fleet of spaceships of intergalactic warring cats.

Unable to resist the urge relax, Shiro slumped in his chair once he reached the hangar, exhaustion taking over his body as all the action of the last few hours catched up to him. In the back of his mind he could feel it, the subtle content purr of the Black Lion, weird and conforting at the same time, until it started nagging at him to get up and reunite with his peers.

Sighing tiredly, Shiro complied. As worn-out as he was, he still felt the urge to check how Keith and the other cadets were doing, be assured that noone had a serious injury or whatsoever. He was particularly worried about Lance and Hunk, as they were right under the line of fire during the first part of the retrieval mission, which left them the most prone to actual death. Ignoring his less than optimistic thoughts, Shiro got up and exited the ginarmous mouth of his own mechanic cat's head, not before admiring the beautifuly craftmenship of the war ship, and started to the bridge.

Except that getting back to the bridge was easier said than done. The sheer size of the hallways and amount of interjections consumed much of his time and patience, frustrating Shiro quite a bit. _"You're the leader now. Don't lose your cool"_ he thought, trying to keep as calm and in control as the thrown-in-a-space-war situation allowed him.

However, it took him almost half an hour to actually find his way to his destination, and then a few more minutes to really get there. Along the way he bumped into a hopelessly lost Keith, the teen as fed up as Shiro felt tired, and they headed to the bridge together, the younger visibly annoyed and murmuring unbecoming comments about the bigness of the castle. They tried finding their way together, but between Keith's zero patience and zero sense of direction and Shiro's own shuffled thoughts, it was a wonder they even got back to the bridge, sincerely.

When they finaly made their way through the doors, though, it's not Allura nor Coran that greeted them.

"Holy crow, you guys are _slow_! I've been waiting FOREVER!"

Dramaticaly sprawled  on a command chair that hopefuly was meant for him, Lance waived his hand lazily at them, visibly getting a bit too confortable where he was, but thankfuly uninjured. Coran and Allura basically ignored their interaction, too occupied for the moment checking the castle's functionality and probably making sure that nothing would go KA-BOOM on them. Hunk and Pidge were not there yet.

"How did you get here so fast?" asked Keith, his voice sounding rougher than usual with all the screaming and shouting and general panic, sounding slightly more aggressive than usual, but eyes actually lit with admiration. After all, after living in the open expanses of the desert, the boy got lost more often than not when he was in closed spaces.

Barely sending them a shit-eating grin, Lance shrugged, slouching on his chair even more. 

Right on cue, Hunk crossed the door, hand on his knees while he tried support himself, and not five minutes later in came Pidge, looking not as worn out but definitely grumpier, Rover silently floating behind him. The big guy looked beyond tired and ready to pass out,  but Pidge, in all his glorious stature, was mumbling profanities about the castle's size, and soon both teens slumped to the floor uncerimoniously. However, what stood out to Shiro was their condition, and he couldn't help a sigh of relief.

They were fine.

"Excelent work, paldins! I'm so proud of you!" exclaimed princess Allura out of nowhere in her ducet voice, snaping everyone out of their respite and back to their scrambled reality. "According to the castle's scans, we should be out harm for the next few varga, hopefuly a quintant, and all thanks to you!" she sweetly smiled at them, indicating with her hand the star map at what seemed to be planet Arus and the lack of aparent threats nearby.

Sleepy and pretty much out of commission, the rag tag group of teens/adult just nodded, aknowledging the sincere praise. Lance might have said something like "Anything for you, beautiful", but Shiro couldn't be sure. Too tired.

In the background, Coran typed and made a few more tweeks on the console, and moment later he was before them, tugging at his prideful mustache as he took in the ragged team's situation. "So." he started, going to Lance and pulling him up, ignoring the stream of seemingly spanish curses, and them doing the same with an unwilling Hunk and a grumpy Pidge. "You lot seem ready to shut down like a pack of Yelmores after ingesting too much Phaunatonium on a Clear Day. I suggest, princess, that we take them to a quick tour of the castle's facilities and show them to their bedrooms."

Everyone perked up instantly.

"Bedrooms? As in 'one for everyone', or 'one for each'?" questioned Pidge, visibly less grouchy with the idea of a shower and a bed, but weary of the idea of sharing a room with all those men. SMELLY men.

Coran blinked, confused for brief moment, before laughing it off with a wave of his gloved hand. "Why would we shove all those sweaty, grimy bodies in one single room, Number 5? No, there's enough for everyone! You WILL be residing here for days to come after all, so better get you all cosy! Follow me, lads!" and skipping excitedly, the ginger exited the bridge without a care in the world.

Shiro looked at his team, everyone confused with Coran's energy and ready to crash right then and there. Feeling like a mess himself, he smiled (or grimaced, wichever worked) encouragengly at them, gesturing with his human hand to follow him. The following grunts almost made him laugh, the kids displaying that typical teenager behaviour with their grumpiness, but princess Allura's presence stoped him. At first glance, she lookd amicable and welcoming enough, closing the procession with a smile so noone would get lost, but something in her sparkly eyes indicated that she didn't really like that show of aparent laziness.

For some reason, a shiver went down his not-so-human spine.

******

Luckily enough, the living quarters were in the same grand hallway that led to the bridge, lessening the probability of someone taking a wrong turn and never finding their way back. Not so luckily enough, the weren't taken straight to their rooms and consequent realm of dreams.

Coran, they figured, was a chatterbox, spating at their faces more info than they could absorb at the moment, and that only Pidge and maybe Hunk could hope to understand. Actually, the genious boy looked about done with the alien tech, his eyes barely shining with sanity, and Lance was totaly done with that crap for the day, lot leaving much room for discussion.

Their overexcited guide, however, wanted to show as much as he could of that single hallway, and seemed determined to do so, if aforementioned teens hadn't snaped at him. Coran, bless his soul, condoned them with and understanding smile, instead showing only the lounge where they could unwind and chat and whatsoever in their free time, the way to the front door that was much bigger than any other path, the dining room and at last the adjoined kitchen where they could get food whenever they wanted.

Hunk instantly revived with an excited shout of "Holy guacamole!".

For solid 30 minutes the bigger guy fussed around the kitchen, taking in all the appliances, the cabinets and cupboards filled with an assortment of ten thousand year old food, awed at their design and wondering out loud if alteans had non-stick satinless still pans and pots, and the 'Micro and Macronutrients Synthesizer' ('Food Goo Machine' - by Lance) particularly inpressed him. Lance laughed plenty ant his friend's shenanigans around the kitchen and even joining him eventualy, and both Shiro and Coran enjoyed observing the childlike wonder of both for some time. However, a sudden dark aura started emaniting from both Keith and Pidge at some point, and that was particularly... worrisome.

"Your rooms are ready to receive you, paladins..." called Allura from the door way, visibly spooked by the sudden dark aura, and the air around them instantly eased. Hunk's smiled fell at that, but soon came back when the latino boy patted at his back sympathetically, and Shiro internaly sighed again with both relief and exhaustion.

******

To his general solace, Shiro was the first to be dropped off.

The room was spacious and bright, with a confortable bed, a wardrobe thing a majig, a vanity of sorts and another door that led to a private high-tech bathroom. There wasn't much more to the room, so the hosts gave a brief explanations about how everything worked before going away, anxious about getting their warriors settled (particularly a murdorous gremlin and an annoyed boy with a mullet) and getting back to repairs, dragging both grumpy and curious people with them.

Once everyone was out, Shiro uncerimoniously fell on the bed, kicking his boots off to the other side of the room. The place was confortable and looked safe enough, a bit too bare and inpersonal, but he hoped he could get some Zs after all the excitement. 

If he could keep his nightmares at bay, that is.

******

To Pidge's utter relief, she was dropped off next, Rover silently floating behind him. Probably because she was about to murder a certain loud blue paladin and nobody wanted that.

Anyway, after appliances were more or less explained and Pidge all but kicked everyone out, he paced around the room, calmly taking everything in and comparing to his bedroom at home and at the Garrison. It was bigger and empty, perfect for the youngter's hording habits, and the bathroom was... weird to say the least, but functional. All in all, it was nice in it's own way, private enough that he could do whatever he could to find dad and Matt and maybe relax.

However, there was still something bugging him.

Pidge went out to the door and opened it, silently peeking at the hallways to make sure noone was around, then went back in and locked the door. Breathing in, he removed the stiff armor, removed the arms from the alien overall's sleeves, reached to his back and...

Unhooked it.

Sighing in utter relief, Pidge wringled out of the bra and threw it across the room.

******

Keith was SO glad he didn't need to share a room.

Not that he liked being completely alone, but after one entire year living all by himself in the unpopulated desert, too many people at once could be overwhelming. Specialy if they came with sentient mechanical lions, intergalactic wars and the destiny of the whole known universe. Not to speak about the loudness of the group.

Barely aknowledging Coran's  presence and explanation, Keith just nodded and 'okayed' at him just so he would finish talking sooner. The altean, thank the stars, took the hint graciously and soon was finished with his tutorials, leaving the youg man to his own mind. The room was clear, bright and big, enough that said young man didn't feel caged in it.

Finally giving away to exhaustion, Keith barely took his armor off and went straight to the too-comfy bed, falling face first on it. Unsheathing his knife and analysing it's features for the umpteenth time, he reflected about all the weird stuff that traspired that day. But mostly important, he sighed in relief, alleviated that Shiro was alive and that he came back home safe and sound. Kinda.

And them he conked out.

******

Hunk's room was too wide.

Not that it was bad, quite the opposite, he liked it. But after living his whole life in a 3mx3m bedroom, and then 2 years in the Garrison's shared bedrooms, Hunk didn't know what to do with all that space. He had no books, projects or trinkets with him to fill the it and make it homey. He'd have to do something about it, or he just might go and crash with Lance or Pidge for the rest of his stay in the castle.

But first, a bath.

As soon as the alteans and his best friend left and continued to the last abode, the samoan started messing around with the shower, having a brief moment of fun while trying to figure out how it worked. But after his curiosity, hygiene and pajamas were taken care of and he finaly crashed on his bed, a pang of grief and dread hit him when he realised he was too far away from home and was not going back so soon.

******

Lance could barely stand straight on his legs anymore.

Too much happened in too little time, and his reality finaly crashed into him while staring at the outwordly bright walls. He was in the freacking space. He met and befriended actual aliens. And then fought actual cat aliens. And now he's supposed to be a hero and save the universe. Everything was too exciting and too overwhelming at the same time, and as awesome as his situation was, by now even Coran's perkiness was tiring him. But he kept tha last bit to himself, since the ginger looked too happy explaining how the wardrobe worked to be interrupted.

Barely ten minutes later, though, both Coran and the beautiful space princess Allura said their goodbyes and went back to the bridge... or wherever they needed to check, leaving Lance to his own musings. When he heard he'd have his own bedroom, the teen loved the idea, as he shared a room with someone else throughout his whole life, first with his brothers, then with Hunk. However, once he was out of the too-complicated  shower and delighted himself with an assortment of non-expirable altean skincare products ("Altea's air was exceedingly dry" per Allura's words), Lance found himself before his own bedroom. Too empty, too silent, too overwhelming.

That was the first time he thought he missed home.


	2. Sharpshooter: origins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We all know that before they met the Arusians, Hunk got some nice ingredients. Later on, there was the party with the locals. At some point Hunk'd have to go out on adventure to get more supplies for the party and his overall culinary wonders. However, Hunk doesn't do 'adventure'. At least not alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S1 - Between Eps 3-4  
> You don't become a sharpshooter out of nowhere, right? So Lance had to start it somewhere!  
> And also, three teenagers suddenly became good buddies, and we didn't even see that happening.

Ok, so food goo wasn't as bad as it looked. The texture's disgusting? Yes, but it had a certain coolness and tangy taste to it that was quite addicteve in it's own way, and Hunk was ready to accept it as their standard space food. The fact that it had all the nutrients they needed in one meal was a plus.

But when Coran appeared with that horrid, trecherous looking 'Paladin Lunch'... He couldn't stand it. No matter how healthy, nutrient packed that dish was, there was no need for healthy food to be so foul smelling, and his fellow paladins were totaly in agreement with that. Right then, he remembered.

During a short break in their Voltron training of that morning, right after Lance did an awesome gig that send everything butt-first to the ground, Hunk collected some plant life that covered the plains, nothing looking like it'd kill them on the spot or anything biohazarduous. He was rushed into his lion too soon though, so he didn't have enough time to check on the stuff he picked up, shoving everything in his chestplate and completely forgetting about it.

But now? Showing everything to his altean friend, he could totally come up with something.

"Coran, we are on a planet now with herbs, spices and whatever this thing is... a tuber? Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna head back to the kitchen and spice things up."

And he went to kitchen right away.

He was excited. He always thought that exotic food back on earth was difficult to deal with, but the challenge of making a difficult recipe work was as exhilarating as bringing his mechanical trinkets to life. But learning how space ingredients worked?

Totally his cup of tea.

So when he got to the kitchen and put on an apron over paladin armor and everything, he was ready to rock that ship. Laying the ingredients he got  so far in front of him, he wondered what he could do with that. If that leafy thingy was indeed a tuber of sorts, maybe he could cook a stew, and maybe some roasted tuber! And the herbs would made a nice salad, and the spices tasted a bit like mustard... He could make a honey-mustard type of sauce, just like the ones that Subway(c) had in some places, but better!

Oh, everyone loved it!

A few hours later, after defeating that weird robot... beast... thing, Allura announced that a party would be hosted in the castle in way to show her thanks to the Arusians' kindness and hospitality, and everyone was on board with the idea. A few minutes later, Coran was about set foot in the kitchen when Hunk barricaded it to avoid unnecessary strife and hazarduous cooking endeavors. The altean advisor was none the happier, but forgot about the paladin's insurgence right away when Allura asked for his opinion on party decorations.

Preparations started right away, excitement filling the kitchen with warmth... but in a few minutes came to a halt.

Hunk noticed he didn't have enough ingridients.

******

"LAAAAAAAAAAAANCE!!!!"

The cuban had one second to turn in the voice's direction, and one second later he was almost send flying to the floor by a sprinting Hunk if said Hunk hadn't grabed his shoulders in time. "Hold the phone, dude, what the heck?!"

"Lance, you NEED to help me, you're the only one I can ask!"

"Ok, I got it, but let me go first."

And so Hunk let go, nervously fiddling with his own fingers as Lance indignantly cleaned non-existant dust off his armor as he huffed. The act of annoyance was soon dropped, though, as Lance noticed how on edge his friend looked. "What's the matter?"

"Uhm, so, you know how I kicked Coran out of the kitchen and said I'd take total responsability over the food?", he started, Lance nodding as a shiver went down his spine upon remenbering the horrific paladin lunch earlier. "Well, I need more ingredients. What I picked up this morning is not enough to feed 5 humans, 2 alteans and a whole village of cuddly aliens... and all the food in the cabinets is ten thousand years old".

"Ok... and WHY do you need me? I know I'm awesome, but cooking is not my thing..."

"But you like adventures right?" Hunk asked back, looking even more nervous as his enormous honey eyes pleaded with Lance, his friend not being a fan of exploring as much as him. But the idea was not totaly horrible. It's been a few days since they first landed in that cosy planet, and yet all they knew was the Castle of Lions and the surrounding plains that didn't have much of anything. However, once he saw beyond the hills while inside Voltron, and then again while visiting the Arusians... Large expanses of forest and savana and a number of crystal clear lakes could be seen, begging to be explored. Therefore, Lance didn't even exhitate.

"Let's do it".

Hunk's beaming smile was worth the trouble.

*****

Sneaking out with the hangars was much easier than expected. 

On their way to there, they didn't see a soul, everyone too occupied with their own thing to notice the blue and yellow paladins sneaking around the hallways. Coran and Allura were in the middle of preparing the great hall for the party, Keith took an unhealthy liking to the training deck and most certainly was hacking away a robot, and Shiro and Pidge were too occupied with their guests to notice anything else (seeing Pidge with the tiny people was quite the sight). Add that to Lance's mental map of the castle's layout and done! They were on the way to that nice forest on the other side of the hills unspotted.

"Where are you going?"

Lance and Hunk froze, recognising that rough voice anywhere. Turning around slowly, nervous sweat coating their foreheads, they spoted Keith, all sweaty from a work-out session. Of course he had to get out of the deck right when the duo was passing by. The latino was not about to be detained though, he had an important mission to accomplish and he'd do it no matter the cost. He was about to spit a retort, but Hunk beat him to it.

"I need more ingridients for tonight. Wanna join us?" A pair of blue eyes and pair of purple ones stared at him, one indignant with the unnecessary invitation and other with surprise. For one second, the samoan feared that Keith would turn on his heels and tattle them to Shiro, but instead, he gave a gentle subtle smile and nodded.

Lance's eyes almost popped out of the sockets. It was quite amusing.

So, five minutes later, they were hovering over the forested hills surrounding the village in the Red Lion. A brief discussion occured, the three teens pointing here and there in order to decide where to land, but never reaching an agreement. Well, more like Keith and Lance couldn't agree on where to forage and Hunk resigned himself to his position of appeaser.

"We have to go to the forest!" said Lance indicating the lush vegetation. "It's where all the primary ingridients are you know? That's how american natives survived!"

"Plants are not filling enough, Lance! We need meat, and the lake might have fish-like animals. And I don't know if you noticed, but Pidge is a total carnivore!"

"So what, I'm a vegetarian!"

"YOU TWO STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"

Both perpetrators stoped, Hunk's blazing eyes enough to damp their will to fight. The big guy huffed, satisfied that his reprimand silenced the two spitfires, and pointed in the direction of nearby clearing where they could land without damaging the vegetation, and the pilot complied, still stunned with the surge of rage of the normaly mild tempered samoan. In the background, Lance shrugged, more-or-less used to his friend's rightful outbursts.

Once they got to the ground and exited the Red Lion, and now that Hunk was nice again, Lance asked excitedly. "So, Chef, what's on the menu?"

"Glad you asked my friend!" he answered, already crouching in order to look for more tubers. "Look, the first thing on our minds has to be what our GUESTS eat, and not what we eat, or else we could offend them. We don't know their diet, but they're fervorous abouth their weird religion, right? So, I think we should avoid unnecessary risks and concentrate on vegetables..."

"HA! In your face, mullet!"

Hunk and Keith stared, one completely done with Lance's childish attitude, the other sighing as he aknowledged that he was not eating meat that night and completely ignoring his companions' jabs. The latino sweatdroped, unconfortable with the stares, and finaly crossed his arms, murmuring an annoyed "Que sea" under his breath.

Satisfied that his best friend decided to shut up, Hunk returned to his menu ideas. If they were going to host a party, what they needed were bite sized  _hors d'oeuvre_ , something you could eat while standing, and for that, fruits and tubers were ideal. But all would be for nothing if they couldn't get spices for the savory dishes and something to replace honey or sugar. After all, no party was complete without a good dessert.

"Ok, we have our plans. Lets go!." said Hunk, finaly, after laying out his plans. Lance nodded, excited to finaly go out and explore the surroundings, while Keith looked at his bigger friend with mild admiration, making Hunk a tad bit unconfortable. And so they entered the forest.

Maybe calling it a forest was an exageration. It was more like a transitional environment with sparse big trees that somehow remenbered the ones from Earth, shrubs with ginormous spotted leaves and a crapload of weird herbs that had a varying range of colors, from purple to blue to green to yellow. Hunk recognised some of them as the ones he picked earlier that day. "Oh, that one with the striped legume taste like mustard, the leafy one was the tuber... And them those purple little fruits! Oh, they tasted amazing! Totaly weird, but amazing!"

"Hey, what about this?!" called Keith from somewhere, springing among the bushes while holding a vine packed with cubical yellow and pink fruits, a leaf comicaly stuck on his hair that he didn't notice. 

Biting his tongue to not laugh, Hunk evaluated those. Back on Earth, weird colored fruits were poisonous most of the time, but here? Who knew. So shrugging off his wariness, Hunk gave the boy a thumbs up and tumbled in his direction to put the ingridients in his satchel.

Lance, meanwhile, climbed a taller tree a few meters ahead, trying to spot something that resembled stuff that he ate back home, from papaya to those weird savory tamarinds that sometimes he found in that Ecological Reserve back in Varadero. But to his dismay, he found nothing of the sort, tasting bitter homesickness instead as he stared at the unfamiliar horizon.

Sighing in defeat, Lance slided down the tree, wondering if he should make fun of Keith's current stuck-in-the-bushes predicament or just swallow the joke, when he bumped into something when he landed. He didn't make much of it as he walked away, probably just a rock or something. He smiled, about to joke with his friends in order to forget his homesickness, when their eyes widened beyond possible. It'd been comical if it was only Hunk, but if Keith was making that scared face too, then something was not right.

And then, he heard the buzzing.

He hadn't noticed it before, something that was able to mix with the sounds of the meadow without a problem. But now that he payed attention to it, it reminded Lance of something that could frighten even the most buff and corageous of MMA fighters. Gulping down a yelp, the Cuban turned around, prepared to face one of the most horrifying and vicious animals he actualy had the displeasure to confront back on Earth.

Quiznacking wasps.

They were different from theirs of course. Terran wasps were terrifying, yes, but were small enough that you could slap them away with your bag and then run for your life. Also, they were either black or yellow or both, easy enough to see when you had the missfortune to face one before the bliding pain. And at last, some terran wasps were just over-aggressive bees that liked flowers and made honey, so good for nature and economy!

The five Arusian wasps before them were terrifying on a completely different level. As similar as they looked, they were titanic version of their small insects (and so were their stings QUIZNACK) and yet much more silent, and their bodies was a confusing shade of blue-green that blended too well with their surroundings. The compounded eyes, though, were smaller, much more rudimentary than their wasps, and with some luck they also had awful hearing. 

Hunk had said all that scientific mumbo-jumbo in five seconds.

"RUN!" was all Lance said before spritting for his life, somehow dragging both Keith and Hunk in his wake.

"LANCE WHAT DID YOU DO!" screamed a panicked Hunk, holding his heavy satchel for dear life.

"I THINK I BUMPED THEIR NEST!"

"WHAT THE HECK, MAN!"

"SHUT UP, THEY'RE GETTING CLOSER!" shouted back Keith, his bayard activated and on the ready just in case. But sincerely, he dind't think he'd be able to get close enough to hack them, not with those bigass stings. So he kept running, helping Hunk with his bagage.

However, run as they might, the wasps were gaining on them, their bulking size not hindering their pursuit of the perpetrators. And sadly for the three they lost sight of the Red Lion. They must have run in different direction and now they were lost, and they'd die a painful death stinged by giant wasps...

"WAIT!" called Lance suddenly, pulling his two unfortunate companions into a big rock outcrop in the middle of the forest. Keith and Hunk stared at him, stunned with the sudden action and ready to rebulk him when the buzzing rushed by them nonstop. Making a gesture asking for silence, Lance exited the cover, peeking over the rock to see where were the deadly alien-wasps.

They had halted a few meters ahead, visibly confused whit the disapearing act of their victims, but still buzzing around, looking for them as the voracious carnivores they were. Lance had to squint his eyes to see them, their camouflage hindering his assessment when he spotted something that just might help him. Between the buzzing wings and slightly blurred by them, the five predators had a conspicuous white spot, right where could be a vital organ, or whatever insects had in them.

Lance silently activated his bayard, Hunk's constant tugging at his leg barely distracting him as he prepared to take the shots. He wouldn't have much time, only two quick shots by wasp at most, and they HAD to count, or they were dead meat before defeating the boss Zarkon, and that'd be so  _not_ cool.

Slowly breathing in and calming his nerves, Lance took the first shot.

The confrotation might have lasted a few seconds or several minutes, the boy couldn't really say. The first two blasts hit the biggest and most menacing threat, but alerted the other four of their hiding spot. Screaming deragingly, Lance shot again again and again, hitting one, missing the other, until the last one was right before him prepared with the giant sting right at his face...

A sound of metal slicing through chitin-like exterior, an ungodly shriek and gasps of terror later, Keith stood before Lance, his sword at attention as green fluid slided down the blade. At his feet, Hunk let out his breath his eyes bulging with the almost death situation and grabbing at Lance's leg for dear life.

They stared at each other for a few seconds, their adventure settling in as they realised their situation. Green slime, huffing and puffing, dirt and a satchel full of weird coloured fruit held tight by the samoan... It'd look fun, if it wasn't.

"What the quiznack."

******

If not for Lance remembering that weird blue tree in the horizon and the red leaved blue flower on the path they had rushed through, they might never had made it back to the Red Lion, still calmly sat exactly where they left her in the clearing. The way back was silent, the three boys out of breath and alert for any other nest that might appear on the road, but thankfuly, no such stuff happened, and they were able to get to the castle in time to prepare for the party that night, even though they felt pretty tired.

Tired, but a bit more friendly.

Once at the hangar  and after getting to the main hallway Hunk, Keith and Lance went their own way. All of them needed a serious bath, one had a feast to prepare, the other wanted to take a nap before engaging in a tiring social event. And Lance... well, he had his own musings to do.

After cleaning the blood that congealed into something the reminded food goo (UGH) and once he was outh of the shower, Lance laid on his bed, his bayard at his hand as he studied the object. Back in the forest, it was the only thing that could save them, other than Hunk's cannon. But the other option was too risk, putting the forest and other animals in danger... the powerful, generalized blasts could have caused a forest fire, and harming the home of those sweet Arusians was out of question. Therefore, Lance was a tiny bit glad tha Hunk got too scared to remember his weapon.

And then it hit him.  
  
They had two tank fighters in their ranks: Shiro and Keith, both efficient in their wake. Pidge could do close and distant range combat, a deadly support in general, but most importantly she was tech expert. Hunk's weapon's got range, but no precision, something useful in openfield battles but too cubbersome if the need of a cleaner job surfaced. And then there was Lance, not that strong in close combat, definetely not the brain of the group although he liked to think he was a good tactician, and could be pretty silent when he wanted.

Getting up and heading to the vanity, Lance activated his blaster and positioned himself in front of the mirror, admiring the beautiful and dangerous man before him. Back in the forest, he could almost killed all of those Arusian-wasps, but the lack of precision got pain too close for confort. If he had a better aim and control... He could imagine himself, blaster in position and all glittery heroism enveloping his persona as Allura and other beautiful girls surrounded him and gaped at his awesomeness.

"Sharpshooter, huh?" he murmured at his mirrored twin, an overconfident grin spreading through his face. " I got this."

At his vanity, well hidden behind a jar os face cream, a small blue mice stared at him amusedly. He was so telling it to Allura

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 - So, remember in S8 episode "The Grudge" where everyony was stranded in that CO2 filled planet and everybody was super lost without their tech and Lance was the ONLY one who knew where to go? So, that awesome ability was never explored in the previous seasons, and that pissed me off a little. SO I WILL MAKE FULL USE OF IT. SUE ME (ok, don't, I'm poor)  
> 2 - Also, Arus was not explored enough.  
> 3 - At last, during the party in ep 4, the mice told Allura that Lance was up to something. And I'm sure it was the beginning of his sharpshooting.  
> ...  
> Leave a kudo to get me smiling.  
> Leave a comment to get my heart soaring.  
> Leave a constructive review to get me grounded lol
> 
> Peace out, yo'!


	3. Appreciation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sendak was captured and dealt with. Now, both Coran and Allura feel heavily for their blue paladin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S1 - Ep 5 to 6  
> A bit of an insight of what goes through the heads of our favorite alteans. Because we don't get enough of it.

When Hunk and Coran were back from their angst filled trip to the Balmera, they are again striken with fear once they make their way (more like tumbled their way, the crystal was HEAVY) to the bridge, where all the chaos started. Through the comms, Allura relied to them that they were in infirmary, giving Lance a much needed first aid treatment and preparing him for the cryo-sleep, all they needed now was the power source.

Without further ado, but still not fast enough in Hunk's opinion, both human and altean installed the crystal, the already cyan blue ore gaining new life and shine once it was connected to the castle's system and brought everything back to life. On the other side of the comms Allura gasped in relief, and her instrunctions on how to operate the pods could be heard, directioning Pidge to push  this and that and that panels (wich the names were impossible for a normal human to pronounce), and then grunting as she most likely settled Lance inside the pod.

Meanwhile, Coran and Hunk didn't waste a second more, running as fast as they could towards the infirmary and make sure that the blue paladin would indeed survive. Hunk couldn't remember the last time he ran so fast... ok, it was at the Balmera, he's scared shitless back there, but point is: he was anxious to see his friend safe and sound and so was Coran, the usualy spirited man not saying a word during their sprint.

Once at their destiny, both took a second to gatter themselves, not wanting to unnerve the group with their despair, specialy when they seemed to be talking about something important...

"I'm staying with you guys." Hunk heard Pidge say, her voice clear and certain of her words (because Pidge is  _totaly_ a girl, if that diary was anything to go by). "Let's stop Zarkon for all of our families."

"Good to have you back on the team." responded Keith, his voice husky with emotion and maybe exhaustion. But who knew at this point?

Coran, the emotional man he was, teared up, happy that those youths at least seemed more in tandem with each other. However, he said nothing, deciding instead to barg into the room with all the dignity he had under the dirt, soot and tiredness, followed by a worried Hunk, his thick eyebrows scrunched up with all the emotional baggage.

Tugging at his mustache as an attempt to look calm, Coran walked towards the group, assessing their bodies and huffing delightedly at the lack of mortal injury on the paladins, relaxing more at seeing Allura unscathed, and then made a beeline to the occupied pod. Nobody stoped him, all fully aware that the advisor was fine only thanks to Lance and his self sacrificing butt.

Laying his gloved hand over the smooth surface of the pod, Coran looked at Lance. When hell broke loose a few hours earlier, he coulnd't do a full assessment of him, the remnants of smoke and debris of the explosion hindering his vision as everyone gathered around the fallen boy, and the urge to fix the situation sent him and Hunk into space before they really knew what was damaged. Now, only a few minutes into the healing chamber, the mustached man could analyse all the damage, squeezing his heart painfully.

From the outside, not much was injured, mostly scrapes and burn marks on his flawless skin that would heal without a problem. Lance probably hadn't even felt them. But if the scans were correct, the internal situation was not so fortunate, with a few broken ribs, an internal bleeding in his abdomen and two or three concussioned areas on his head.

It was a miracle he survived so long.

A burst of emotion surfaced, and Coran couldn't help resting his forehead on the pod, a single tear sliding down his face as the current situation enveloped him. He almost lost someone to Zarkon  _again_ , and he barely could do anything to avoid it.  More than that, he could have prevented it if he had been a bit more alert of his surroundings, but that was hard to accomplish when you were talking about missing your home planet with a kindred spirit.

He remembered the faces of all the paladins of old, each and everyone of them dying a painful death as their former friends Zarkon and Honerva killed them heartlessly. And them king Alfor, his dear friend whom he still could see as an AI, but could not pat him on his back as they used to do. And then Lance, who played along with his silly jokes, criticized his cooking and had opened up to him, almost lost so early in the battle.

A tear, another tear and another. The dam was broken, and there was no stoping it.

A few uninterrupted moments of grief encompassed him, but soon (too soon), he felt a large hand pat him on his back reassuringly. Barely turning his face, Coran saw Hunk, his eyebrows still furrowed with worry but somehow smiling reassuringly (probably forcing it). "Don't look so sad." he murmured, privy to the perky man's sudden burst of sadness. "Lance hates seeing people worrying about him, you know? Also, he  _hates_ when people thank him. Even back in the Garrison, he didn't like when I thanked him after he bailed me out of trouble... well, probaly because it's his fault, but stil... Does that even make sense?".

At that disclosure of their mutual friend's behaviour, Coran couldn't help laughing at such controversial modesty. Of course such self confident character got bashful when faced with his own selflessness.

Feeling slightly better about the whole fiasco, the altean straightened his back in a way to get some confidence back into his (not) old bones, and turned to the paladins, every single one of them looking ready to crash. Allura was talking to them, looking more awake, trying to coax them to sleep and that Lance was fine now. But try as she might, the paladins were a stubborn bunch and were not budging.

"Now, now paladins!" he called, all mirth coming back to his voice as he let Hunk assess his friend. "You can all check on him, but that'll do him no good if he wakes up and find you lot dead on the ground! At least take shower, lads! You stink!"

And sincerely? The  _were_ stinky.

Somehow convinced with Coran's show of calmness, the humans looked at each other, assessing their current state, and nodded in return. Even Hunk, who was worried sick on their way back, joined them in their procession towards their rooms. 

Coran was right behind them, making sure noone would run back to cryo-pod, when he heard the princess.

"I'll take care of him while you rest, do not worry."

Sending his protegé a sincere and thankful smile, Coran nodded, than discretly looked one last time at Lance. So still, so unnatural.

Under his breath, Coran murmured a heartfelt "Thank you" before going into the hallways and draging the paladins towards their bedrooms.

******

Once the voices of the humans grew distant, and after some time completely ceased to echo throughout the hallways, Allura finaly let herself relax, a deep sigh exiting her lips as tension, fear and worry slided through her shulders and a weird numbness took over her body. She hadn't felt so tired since...

Since Zarkon first unleashed his rage.

Shaking her head to forget those unpleasant memories, Allura left the control area in the middle of the medic bay and walked towards the static paladin, stopping before the cryo-pod and analysing Sendak's handy work. It has been barely half a varga after he was placed in there, but his vitals were stable again, and that got another sigh of relief out of the princess.

When she first met Lance (well, after their disastrous first interaction...), she didn't take him as the type of person that would sacrifice himself for others. He's cocky, an ever present shit eating grin every time he droped phrases that annoyed her to no end, and always trying to compete with Keith for some reason or another, truly a childish youth that she feared was not fit for the noble role of a paladin.

She swallowed that judgement, bitterness coating the back of her throat. If not for him, she might have lost a precious member of her family, the only other survivor of Altea.

Resting her hand over the smooth surface of the healing device, she took in his stillness, and how that was more unnerving than his cringey pick-up lines. Smiling with the memory of their first encounter, she looked at his expressionless face, slightly guilty with her preconceptions and seeing him in a whole new light, and pouring in her words all her truest feelings, she said it.

"Thank you so much".

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something that bothered me and that no screenwriter of the show thought about approaching: neither Allura or Coran thanked Lance. Like, he freaking took an explosion for Coran and he was never thaked. WHY?


	4. Sick Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reviving an ancient creature that's easily the size of a planet can take a toll on one's body, and Allura seconds it. SO, the team takes a break before tackling Coran's Paladin Training!  
> Bonding ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S1 - After ep 8 "Rebirth" and before the events in the 1st issue of Voltron's comic.
> 
> Ok, this was NOT supposed to be so long... but what can I do? Sometimes stories take over the helm and go away with it [shrugs].

Haziness surrounded her. Swirls of colors, shadows and voices flickered in the corners of her tunneled vision, too indefinite to actualy point ou what they were. Also, she felt cold and heat and pain, all at the same time. She didn't know if the relenting of comfy embrance of fabric brought relief or more disconfort.

Air falted. Innards revolted. A thin layer of sweat both gross, soothing and too cold. She was enveloped in a cocoon of fluffy warmth and relentless stuffiness that rendered her immobile, even though she felt restless. But in her restlesness, her limbs felt heavy like lead, and nothing worked the way Allura wanted, wich was both frustrating and tiring.

In between all those jumbled  sensations, something pricked her feverish arm, but she didn't thoroughly register it.

Ever so slowly, numbness spread through her body, and all her overexcited neurons started to relax. A fog covered her already confused eyesight, but it's conforting instead of frightening. Someone was tenderly holding her hand, grounding her, but in a few minutes every other feeling was lost to Allura. All she could sense... was darkness.

******

"This should keep her stable." said Coran, his voice  sounding cheery as always, although forced, as his tone didn't match the gleam of worry that covered his eyes. He held Allura's hand, too warm with fever, administering as best as he could the Altean sedative with a earthen syringe counterpart.

Around him were all the paladins with a varying degrees of expressions of concern. Shiro seemed calm, but furrowing brows and clenched fists gave out his emotions; Keith was a bit more expressive in his body language, with crossed arms and stiff posture, a dazed look on his eyes as if the scene reminded him of something bitter of his past.

Pidge sat by Allura at the edge of the giant bed, frowning, but gently wiping sweat from the princess' forehead; next to Coran, Hunk fiddled with his fingers anxiously, confirming with the advisor what kind of meals were served for sick Alteans as silently as he could; and Lance was crouching near Coran too, holding his medical supplies as he took in his friend's condition, biting his lower lip in an attempt to hold his emotions in.

Allura was not well, wich was an understatement. A few hours after freeing Shay and her people, bringing the Balmera back to life and getting rid of the Galran creature for good, the princess collapsed, a raging fever debilitating her immensely, and followed by the paladin's panic. After all, their strong, steadfast decision maker was suddenly weak, and that was and alien concept to them, no pun inteneded.

Coran was touched, seeing all those strange humans fussing over the princess as if she was a precious family member. But that was soon replaced by action, the older Altean barking orders left and right in order to take care of his protegee.

Now that she was under proper medication and stable, the paladins moved out (more like were forced to leave) of the room in order to let Allura rest, but not without looking at her with worry one last time before being shoved out by the older Altean. "Now, now, I know you're worried, but hanging off the princess' bed like Elarusian lizards won't heal her faster! I reckon you lot have your own schedule to do, so shoo, shoo!"

And just like that the teens were left to their own devices. And seriously, noone had a 'schedule'. They just defeated the freakest robot... beast... ever, and all they wanted to do by the time the struggle was overwas just lay low at the common room and sleep the day away. At least, that was their 'schedule' until the very second Allura collapsed. Now, everyone was just too high strung to just crash and sleep.

"Sssso..." started Pidge, feeling awkward with the tense silence as everyone turned their attention to her. "I'm gonna go to Green's hangar and... you know... start analysing that Galra crystal? We still don't know it's properties nor how it corrupted the castle's main system, so... yeah, lots of work. See you." And just like that she walked away, still feeling her friends' stares boring into her back, but ignoring it either way.

 The team didn't stop her, though. Rather, it started the furry of activity that they needed to get their minds off their sick princess.

"I'll talk to the Balmerans and see if they need help. Their home is safe, but there's a lot of repairing to be done." announced Shiro in his leader like way, voice calm and in control although his eyes kept going back to Allura's bedroom door.

"I... I'll help you." said Keith, feeling a bit hesitant about interacting with so many new people at once. But down, deep down there, he wanted to help them in having their home back.

Wich left Hunk and Lance to decide what to do. They also wanted to help with restoration, Hunk more than anyone else, but it felt wrong working on something so important without the princess. Also, the yellow paladin discussed long and thoroughly with Coran about all  sick meals that Alteans ate, and coming with numerous recipes to feed her, and then everyone else if the need arrived. However, if he could find Shay's grandmother and gather some nutrient rich ingridients that weren't too bug like...

Lance and Hunk exchanged glances, and as if reading each other's mind, they nodded.

"Me and Hunk will come up with something for the princess, and I'll sent or big genius here to help you later." Lance said, resting his elbow on Hunk's shoulder and pointing finger guns at his friends in a laid back way that contradicted their current predicament, wich made both Shiro and Keith release a suffering sigh as they walked away.

Seeing both leader and his right hand man disapear in the immense castleship hallways, Hunk looked at his friend and murmured. "You're dying inside, aren't you?"

"Yup. Let's get working before Allura dies first."

******

Lance and Hunk started their mission right away.

Hunk, bless his big and ingenius soul, picked a lot of supplies back on Arus with the proper supervision of the Arusians (and they took Klaizop with them... because wasps), and most of them were healthy, easy to digest plants and honey (from the freaking WASPS), excellent for bed ridden people. The challenge, however, was to reproduce something that reminded Altean recipes without hazarduous effects, because all those dishes back on Arus? Easy peasy.

Altean cuisine with Arusian food? Not so much.

They tryed everything they could. From simple 'crystal-algae soup', to difficult 'Juniberry seeds porridge', to plain purple cookies. But nothing seemed to work, the ingredients of Arus and Altea not really blending well together. The soup was too bitter no matter the concentration of crystal-algae counterpart, the porridge always went stale as soon as it was out of the fire and the cookies they baked were too hard for human consumption. Maybe they could take out a sentry with those, it was worth the shot.

Some stuff together produced a disgustingly sweet brown mash.

Other stuff thrown in the same container gave off a smell so sour their noses started running.

Other food just plain exploded.

Figures, Arusian food didn't work as well Altean ingridients, and two hours in their endeavor, both Cuban and Samoan were splayed out on the kitchen floor, faces and clothes dirty with a weird mixture of space flour, giant wasp honey and handmade jelly of some fruit from Arus that the king gave them. Try as they might, they still couldn't get a recipe right, the lack of proper "Beginners Guide to Space Cuisine" a real issue. At one point, both teens even discussed the probability of food goo being a proper confort meal, but they threw idea away as soon as the food goo machine started making weird, worrisome biping noises that drove them away.

"Man, I'm, like, out of ideas." murmured Hunk, his honey colored eyes staring at the sterile ceiling as if it would tell him the answer to his problems. It didn't.

"If YOU'RE saying that, what hope do I have?" retorted Lance, turning on his stomach, the cool floor weirdly confortable against his stained clothes. "Maybe we should grab Coran? He knows so much random stuff, he could help..."

"Remember 'Paladin Lunch'?"

"... Never mind."

A few more minutes of stagnant silence followed, neither teens knowing what to do. At some point, Lance closed his eyes, remembering back home and those days he or one of his siblings fell ill, and how his mother brewed tea for them. It was always a ginger and honey concoction, both sweet and spicy to get the system working again. Lance smiled at the memory, his homesickness not as harsh as the first days, but still there tugging at his heart.

Ginger and honey.

Spicey and sweet. Maybe...

"You know what." said Hunk loudly and out of nowhere, startling the blue eyed boy out of his reveries. "I'm gonna go down there on the Balmera and talk to Shay and her grandma. If the food here is not working, I'll get some nice Balmeran soup done for Allura." so he got up, Lance's eyes wide with his friend's unnusual attitude. Hunk noticed and sighed, looking dejected. "Look, if we had more time, I'd love to work on these ingridients for days. But Allura will be up in two hours or so, and she needs to eat."

"That's true... she really does look weak..." mused the Cuban, getting up and patting his shirt off flour and faling to do so. However, even if their chemical endeavors in the kitchen trying to reproduce Altean comfort food didn't work, he still could try HIS version of comfort and make some nice energizing tea for her... right?

Right.

"Hey, Hunk... do we have ginger? Or something like it?"

Hunk stoped at the door and looked back at his friend, musing for some time with his hand on his chin before murmuring a "Just a bit" and running off to the pantry.

Sounds of rummaging filled the kitchen. Box being shoved to the side, pots and pans falling to the floor with deafneing clang and  Hunk's startled yelp, foosteps, more box and recipients being shoved aside, countless offended 'squeaks' from the mice, Hunk saying sorry, lights flickering in and out of life and some more. Anyhow, a few minutes later in come a smiling Hunk looking more haggard than he should, holding a root that looked like a cross between a sweet potato and an apple and grapes. Behind him, the mice stared at him looking irritated, and Lance wondered if the messy hair and dirtier cheeks was their fault.

"Here it is!" called Hunk, snapping him out of his musings. "Coran DID say that this is good to get your strenght back... But what'll do with this?"

"Just some honey tea." Lance responded before Hunk ran away, a confident grin on his face. Maybe he could make it work.

Flickering lights. Blinping food goo machine.

"I got this." he murmured, swallowing a not-so-honorable whimper

******

Meanwhile, many floors below the lively horror show of the kitchen, Pidge worked on her projects, but not as enthusiasticaly as usual. Rather, she was not getting nowhere with her research.

Power sources back on Earth always had a manageble source. Hydroeletrics had the raging waters stored in dams from mighty rivers that made the turbines' propellers rotate fast enough to produce mechanical energy, that conducted the right way became electricity. That was the same for the vapors of nuclear matrices, the heat from the less advanced thermoelectric fabrics, the propellers from the eolic matrices, solar heat accumulated from solar pannels and so on and so forth. All of the electricity originated from some kind of mechanical energy or external power, and that was something she could understand and work with.

But Crystals that generated their own energy with no external source? That was a bit harder.

So, she tried a few things that came to mind, starting with chemical reactions. "The minerals that compound the crystal are probably mixed with the Balmera's own organic matter, and that must cause an exotermic reaction, slow but strong enough to generate this much energy for so long." she murmured to herself, trying to calm her nerves and concentrate as she tested a few chemical compounds she found here and there in Coran's quarters (she had a complete map of the castle's vent system loaded after Sendak's invasion). Don't think of Allura upstairs.

Didn't work.

"Maybe I should get a small piece of it..." she murmured yet again. She always did that when she was alone, made it easier to organize her ideas once they were out. So, with something that might have been a pickaxe (she wasn't so sure, Coran didn't label his stuff), Pidge tried to get a smaller chunk of the purple crystal that gleamed earily at her. Hack, hack and hack. Whacking nonstop, nothing came off, it was harder than diamond. "Might be made of highly compressed Carbon molecules". Don't think of Allura upstairs.

Didn't work. 

Sighing, Pidge slumped on her chair. Looking at her orange tablet, she registered that she's been working on that stupid rock for almost 2 hours. Varga... whatever. 

"Maybe I should look after Green." she mused, remenbering the fight agains the monster and shivering at the memory. They took quite the beating, and her Lion, lithe and smaller, was a quite banged up. Don't think of Allura upstairs.

The next hour... sorry, varga, the girl ran program after program on Green, checking her own sentient robot's system and making sure that her girl didn't get short circuited or infected with the Galra crystal's intermitent energy. However, the scan program started malfunctioning and glitching, and after some time, it just stopped.

Didn't work.

Pidge sat on her chair again, resting her forehead on her desk, feeling too tired to think, but not tired enough to sleep. There was just too much on her mind. Bumping her head again and again on the surface, it took her sometime to notice that someone was calling her on the comms, only hearing when a high pitched "HEY, GREMLIN!" startled her off her thoughts.

"What is it, Lance." she grunted back, not really in the mood to deal with her obnoxious friend.

"Could you come to the kitchen? I need a favor."

"Ugh, how about no?"

"... Pretty please?"

"No."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, I need you."

"Just shut up, Lance."

"[sigh] I didn't want to go so low, but you gave me no option." Sound of steps and rummaging and mice squeaks littered the backgorund for a few seconds. "Ok. I have your diary."

"... YOU HAVE WHAT?'

"And if you don't come in ten minutes, I will read it to everyone through the comms."

For a few ticks, Pidge thought that her friend was bluffing. Lance was super good at it. But them again, she hadn't seen her diary for some time now, and as far as she knew, it was always in the middle of her sheets in her room or on her desk in the makeshift laboratory.

Pidge darted through the door.

Five minutes later she was by the kitchen's entrace, huffing and puffing after sprinting there. With blood in her eyes, the girl looked at Lance, standing by the counter and actually holding her diary. She wanted to yell and throw things at him, but all she managed was a gasped "How?"

Shrugging, Lance walked towards her and handed it over like the good, awesome person he was. "Hunk had it. I just got it from his room."

"Ugh, of course."

Standing straight and brushing some sweat from her brow, Pidge finaly noticed at the state of the kitchen, widening her hazel eyes at it. I looked like a psychodelic war zone. Noticing her gaze, Lance laughed, finding the disaster amusing now that he saw it from another angle and seeing how colorful it was.

However, they had more important things to discuss, so stuffing her diary in one of the pockets of her very big shorts, Pidge asked. "What did you want me for? Where's Hunk? If it's nothing life threatening, I'm heading back."

In a matter of seconds, Lance went from delightful-at-his-shenanigans to awkward teenager, a really weird transition to observe on the usualy cheery boy. Rubbing the back of his neck as he usualy did when he was nervous, Lance walked back to the counter and to the stove-thing a majig where a kettle-thing a majig lay, spurting out a steady flow of vapor. Now that she noticed it, Pidge smelled something in the air. It was familiar and weird at the same time, and she couldn't place her finger on it.

Oblivious to his small friend's thoughts, the tan teen started. "Me and Hunk tried making some food for the princess, but it was not that easy... So he went down to ask his girlfriend a soup recipe or something. I stayed and made some tea... it took some effort, but it tastes fine now."

"Ok..." Pidge mumbled, approaching the stove and taking off the lid of the kettle-thing a majig to look at inside, and a mist of spicey-sweet tea hit her nostrils pleasantly with full force, and remembered Lance once saying, still at the Garrison, something about how his mom made ginger and honey tea when he was sick and how he missed it. "Eh, you made tea for her. That's nice of you, but  _why_ am I here?"

Uncharachteristicaly looking uncomfortable, moving his weight from one foot to another, he finaly anwered. "Coran came a few minutes ago and said the princess is waking up, and then ran away to fix something called... 'teludav' I think? Anyway, I need you to take this to Allura."

Pidge stared. And stared. She noticed that her mouth was hanging open, so she closed it before finaly asking "Why?"

Looking her dead in the eyes, he said, serious in a way the girl was not used to and that was freaking her out a little. "I don't want to annoy her."

"I... thought you'd jump in the chance to pamper her! What happened to Lance and what did you do to him?

"Piiiidge" he whimpererd, looking at the ceiling as if asking the space for help. "She's super sick, you know? I'm not  _that_ much of a jerk! I'm offended." And scoffing at her, he shoved... well, carefuly handed her the steaming kettle and a mug look alike, looking somewhat sad and annoyed at the same time, and directed her to the door. "Now, go before I get Hunk to go through you stuff again."

Grunting, Pidge complied, the kettle safely away from her torax as she walked into the hallways towards Allura's room, Lance's words going through her mind as she filed away that her friend had his own limits for flirting. That was unnexpected in a good enough way that the Gremlin didn't find doing his wishes that much of a hassle. Also, she WAS worried about the princess.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Lance sighed, feeling tired because of the endeavors of the day, but also dejected for not going to Allura himself. However, as much as he liked Allura and flirted with her, he knew that the princess didn't took his attempts seriously, wich was his intentions as he tried to get a lighter atmosphere most of the time. But the looks she sent him most of those times was enough for him to know that it annoyed her. And he didn't want to upset or tire her when she was not well.

So, stretching his arms and moving them around, the boy decided to tackle the (hopefuly) last trial of the day: organising the kitchen.

In the distance, some weird murmurs echoed through the corridors. It could be the buzzing of the castle's ancient machinery fused with Coran's attempt's to sing, as it usualy caused weird noises in the hallways, but it always sounded a bit warmer than this. Gulping down nervously, Lance grabed a rag and started cleaning the ultimate mess in the room, soon forgeting about all the weird lights and sounds that the castle was making.

******

Her head hurt SO much.

Feeling sluggish and drained, Allura came back to the world of living things with a terrible migraine, and recognised that as the after effects of the Altean medicine usually given for life threatening fevers. She remembered that Blaytz, once, had to take it after a not-so-fortunate encounter with nasty space pirates that left him with injuries that caused him pain for weeks aftewards.

Summoning everything she had inside her, the princess tryed to sit up, but all she managed was slump a little higher on her pillows, her head barely inches above her previous position. She didn't think she'd be able to act up again, so Allura just closed her starlight eyes, hoping her headache subsided soon.

She stayed like for a few doboshes, jumbled memories crossing her mind in a chaotic fashion. Both recent and 10.000 years old events played behind her eyelids, none focusing for long enough for further reflection. One moment it was the sight of her father and mother sitting beside her when she was sad, the other it was the vision of Lance's heinous round ears, then all the paladins of old pampering her after she recovered from one nasty disease, and again she saw the new paladins, this time looking at her with an emotion that reminded of the previous paladins, but slightly different.

As nice as the memories were, though, they made her feel sick. Well, sicker.

While trying to organise her thoughts, someone knocked her door, but the princess didn't notice it. It was too light. However, Allura grunted, trying to make sense of her own mind, and the castle's system recognised it as 'permission to enter', and the white door slipped open with a low hiss, revealing a frowning Pidge behind it.

"Uhm... Princess?"

Alllura startled and looked at the Green Paladin, silently thanking her for making her brain focus at something at last. "Pidge!" she called, or rather, croaked, her voice rough and low because of her current weak state. "Please, come in."

Looking uneasy, the small girl nodded and walked in, a fuming kettle in one hand and a white mug in the other, now that she noticed. Approaching with caution, Pidge carefuly placed them on her chiffonier and sat on her bed. "How are you feeling, Allura?"

"Like a Klam'yrur trampleded on me and slept on my remains." Murmured the tired princess, her delicate fingers trying to clean the remains of gunk from eyes, then looking at the kettle, a pleasent smell and heat coming off of it. "What do you have there?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just some tea... Careful, it's hot." Pidge responded, worry still in her eyes as she served some of the sligthly rose-gold concoction into the mug and handed it to Allura.

"That's very thoughtfull of you, Pidge. Thank you."

"No biggie. Actually, Lance brewed it somehow, I just brought it here."

"Lance brewed this?" The princess retorted, surprised as she brought the cup to her parched lips and tasting it. It was still steaming, but heat and cold never were a bother to Alteans. The tea was slightly spicey, working wonders for her stuffy nose and somehow alliviated the pression behind her eyes, and at the same time, the subtle sweetness behind it calmed her upset stomach somehow, invigorating her a least a little. With a placating smile, Allura finally said "It's delightful. I have to thank him later."

Smiling, Pidge awkwardly patted her shoulder, trying to be conforting but failing miserably. So, instead, she started a monologue, her voice low as it filled the room.

They stayed like that for some time, the princess silently sipping at her tea before it got cold, and the paladin talking about whatever came to her mind, mostly abou technology.

"... and you see, humans are ingenious, we come up with ideas and build a lot of instruments to help in our daily lifes. But you know, back on Earth, in many scientific papers animals take credit for a lot of our inspirations, like hawks a falcons inspired airplane designs. And as much as I hate the wilderness, I have to admit that one of the most appraised engineers on Earth are actually insects called bees. They are small, with important roles in natural ecosystems, and their whole lives is about serving a queen and their hive, and yet, the beehive they build has one of the most stable structures in nature, something about how they make  _perfect_  hexagons from scratch to sustain their home. And now that I think about it, I noticed that the Altean particle barrier uses the same structure as our bees, and now I really want to analyse it..."

Smiling at how Pidge rambled away her theories and discoveries, Allura served herself more tea, finding it's effects very pleasant. However, something was nagging at her, and as much as she liked to listen her friend talk about her scientific knowledge, the princess couldn't resist asking. So, she interrupted Pidge, albeit awkwardly. "Pidge..."

"... and because of toxic stuff they are dying... oh, what is it, Allura?"

"Why did Lance made this?" The princess asked, indicating the mug in her hands.

"Oh. Oh, well, he and Hunk were trying to cook something for you, but they failed miserably. Seriously the kitchen is a mess. That's pretty much all that came of it. And I'm pretty sure that's the space version of ginger tea. I think his mother used to brew it for him when he was sick."

"I see..." Allura mumbled feeling her heart warm at the revelation, but stopped upon noticing that Pidge wasn't over.

"... And for some reason he didn't want to bring it himself. Something about not wanting to annoy you while you're sick."

"Annoy me?" the Altean echoed, arching a pale eyebrow at the info. Lance could be hard to handle at times, but his company wasn't that much of hassle in the end of the day. Actually, she liked to see how he made lighthearted jokes with the other paladins, it brought a sense of peace, as brief as it was, although his pick-up lines were bit much from time to time. "Why would he annoy me?"

"That's what he said." Was Pidge's answer, shrugging. Her guess was as good as the princess'.

Breathing out slowly, Allura sipped at her tea again, marveling at the spice-sweet taste as she mused about Lance's behaviour, somehow happy at his thoughtfulness, but sad that he felt she got upset at him enough that he'd avoid her like that. In the end, though, she decided to not talk to him about that, at least not now when their relationship with him, and sincerely with all the paladins, was still tender and too brief. In her heart, Allura decided to get to know her new friends better once she was healthy again.

But why not start with Pidge, since she was right there?

"So, Pidge, what was that about your engineers? 'Bees', am I correct?"

Beaming at the change of subject, the resident nerd started rambling again about Earth and it's unnusual life forms and how some of them inspired human technology. And they stayed like that for vargas, talking about that and then a lot of random topics until the tea was gone.

And some time later, the rest of the paladins and Coran came into her room, Hunk carrying a steaming pot that smelled delightful, and the soup inside tasting even better. Hunk refused to disclose the recipe, though. "State secret" he said, with Lance smiling suspiciously behind him. Allura let the subject go, feeling too tired to argue.

With a bowl of delicious soup in her hand, the princess eyed every single one of the people present. All of them looked at her with worry, and behind all that, she felt the affection, and she felt her heart augment with all that love. She still felt sick and exhausted, as if she was mauled by one of those horrendous Galran beasts, and she still grieved the loss of her home planet and her family. However, under all that heaviness, she truthfuly felt it for the first time in 10.000 years.

Happiness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As much DreamWorks loves 'bonding moments', I don't think we have enough of them...  
> Also, I always found weird how Lance says in Crystal Venom that the castle is haunted even though only one freak event occured, as horrible as it was. So, I wrote more freak incidents! Did you spot them?  
> And yes, Pidge knows a lot about chemistry and biology and nobody will convince me otherwise. And yes, the stuff about hawks and airplanes, hexagons and beehives is TRUE.


	5. Meanwhile at the Castle of Lions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the whole 'Zarkon being the Black Paladin" debacle, the paladins head to Ulaz hide out to get some facts straight and Lance remains in the castle. Allura's hiding something, and to her chagrin, our blue boy is determined to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S2 - during Shiro's Scape
> 
> Aaaaand more Lance everyone, I'm so sorry... ok, I'm not. SOMEONE has to write his interactions, right? RIGHT.

Allura stood on the bridge in her usual spot, watching as the pod left the castle and headed to the outpost, a sense of dread creeping through her spine. The situantion was less than ideal, meeting a Galra soldier on their own volition like that, but Shiro's pleas were too steadfast to ignore, and therefore Keith went along with it. Put some really interesting tech (and maybe some potential food) in the equation and Hunk and Pidge were game, too. That left her, Coran and Lance behind, the last one making her cringe.

Not that she hated Lance. He was a nice enough guy, playful and all that, but she still couldn't get confortable with him, and Allura couldn't really pinpoint why.  For a fact, his flirtatious behaviour decreased over the last movements, but it was still there, driving her away even though she decided some time ago to get to know the paladins on a more personal level. However, as it stands, the princess couldn't gather the necessary courage for that.

She sighed, a crease of worry on her brows, when the door to the bridge hissed open and the sound of chatter echoed through the room. Lance and Coran entered, the former listening somewhat attentively and the older Altean disclosing some story that might have been funny if not for the current situation.

"... and then I had to drag King Alfor by his feet to scape the cave filled to the brim with explosive Puigian fire-scarabs! Oh, poor King Alfor had to use nunvill for a few quintants to have all his hair back!"

At the mention of 'the nectar of the gods' a not so subtle shiver racked the boy's body, but the smile he gave the advisor was sincere, and Allura had to wonder when did they get so close. However, something in Coran's tone bugged her, so Allura paid more attention to the exchange, and finaly figured out why when her advisor got to the more emotional part of the story.

It was an anecdote that involved Zarkon.

"And... and then came Zarkon to... o-oh, hello there, princess!" said Coran, visibly turning uncomfortable with where the story was headed, and using her to deviate from the topic. "How're the paladins doing down there?"

"I don't know. They still haven't contacted me." she replied, trying to sound aloof but dangerously aware of what might have been going with Lance and Coran in the last few doboshes.

"I see... well, I'll catch you later, Lance. I just remembered, uhm, some... repairs I have to do in... in the kitchen! Yes, that's it. I'll be back in a few!" and just as suddenly as he came in, Coran went out. His tone, though, was a dead give away he was uncomfortable, wich was as rare as getting Pidge asleep in her room, and Allura had to reign her temper to not explode at who got her cheery advisor upset enough to leave an incomplete tale like that.

She send a look at Lance, the boy exceptionally oblivious to her as he looked at the door and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Being the diplomat she was, the princess recognised worry when she saw it, and couldn't leave the subject alone if the blue paladin had a hand in getting Coran upset.

"What were you talking about?" she asked nonchalantly, turning her attention to the outpost before her and checking yet again if there were no signs of danger. But her heart was no in it, not now.

For her surprise, there was no answer. Instead, she heard him slump on his own command post and open a holo-screen, and stayed like that for few doboshes, uncharachteristicaly somber as he seemed to be checking the castle defenses... os something of the sort.

The silence had never been so unnerving.

Coran didn't come back either, and Allura wished he  _actually_ had something to do in the kitchen and wasn't just escaping a conversation, wich drove the altean princess even more nervous, because Coran is the very  _core_ of the term 'conversation'. He doesn't run away from it, he starts and thrives in it!

Something was wrong and she was not going to let the situation slide through her fingers. Allura was about to interrogate the blue paladin when said blue paladin asked. "Are you hiding something from us, princess?"

Well, quiznack.

"What do you mean?"

Her heart clenched and she bit her bottom lip, fully aware of what Lance was refering to, their conversation before meeting Ulaz still fresh. She suddenly felt the lingering feel of betrayal still too raw in her heart, even after all this time.

"Earlier when you said you didn't want us to know the paladins' dark history... there's more to it, isn't there?"

She forgot that Lance could be quite insightfull when he wanted. In all the more recent training sessions, she could see how the paladins were very in synch with each other and how Lance always seemed to pick the right moments to shoot, and every tactical hole in their formation. And that from time to time during debriefings and mission meetings he'd point out details that noone saw before, and how most of the time nobody really gave him credit for it.

What an unfortunate thing to remember now, after shit happened.

"I... don't know what you are talking about."

"Yes, you do." Lance answered, his voice a tone deeper and sounding closer then before. When did he get there, standing beside her command post? She hadn't heard his footsteps. "You're not looking into Shiro's eyes when you said that."

' _Calm down, Allura_ ', she thought as she went through the castle's system and absently looked for any distress beacons they might have missed, but finding none to get her out of trouble. ' _It's just Lance_ '.

"Lance, please... This is not the time to play counselor. I have Coran for that."

"I asked him to tell me about Zarkon, but he ran away."

Allura froze, a sudden flame of rage spreading from her core like a festering wound. She looked at the paladin, all anger raw in her eyes as she barked at him. "Why would you do that?!"

Instead of the indignant act that Lance often pulled when he was cornered, he remained somber, a glint of awkwardness on his face as he knitted his arched eyebrows together and rubbed the back of his neck. But to his credit, he didn't look away, nor he seemed to regret his actions.

"I have to know." he murmured, his ocean blue eyes gleaming with resolve as he stared at her crystal colored ones. " _We_ need to know what happened. Or else, how are we... how is Shiro supposed to completely bond with his lion?"

They stared at each other like that for doboshes, none of them willing to break down the contact. In the background the lights of the space-time pocket swirled around them, casting mysterious shades on them in their silent contest, one wanting to protect the little that was left, the other seeking the truth for the greater good of the team and the known Universe.

In due time, Allura sighed, feeling suddenly exhausted and hugged herself in a self protecting embrace. She knew they had to know, it was in their right as the inheritors of the paladin legacy. But not now.

"As I said..." she started finally, breaking contact and favoring the maelstrom of colors of their current safe haven over the deep hue of Lance's eyes. "Shiro has to bond with the Black Lion on his own terms. Knowing what kind of paladin... what kind of person Zarkon was will not aid him."

Lance stared at her for a few ticks, processing her words. Allura squirmed, uncomfortable at how the usually goofy paladin seemed to be reading her very thoughts through her body language.

"And what about you?" he asked, concern coating every word.

"What?"

"I want to know what you're thinking about. It's not only about Voltron, right?"

Allura swallowed, her nervousness thick in her throat as she thought of a response. In all the time she knew the humans, all she did was hide behind a wall of determination and a drive to defeat those that took everything from her and then from the whole known Universe, never allowing her weaknesses to surface. The paladins needed someone strong to guide them, and a homesick and distressed princess was not the answer. However, day in and day out of their interactions, the paladins became something more than the ragtag humans that arrived at her doorstep, and she most definetely didn't  see them as only warriors in a war, as much as she wanted to burrow those thoughts under an unbreakable facade.

But in that one moment, it cracked a bit. And so she whispered it, wishing and not wishing that the paladin beside her heard it.

"I didn't want you to leave." her voice trembled, despisingly weak as she glanced at her friend. If Lance noticed her weakness, he said nothing. "I thought that... if you found out about the darker side of the paladin legacy, you all would leave me and Coran."

Lance breathed in, eyes wide, but still said nothing for the princess' relief. Allura wasn't sure of what he was expecting with his proding, but her answer probably wasn't on the top of his 'possible outcomes' list, and she couldn't help smiling at Lance's surprised face. For some reason, her heart felt lighter now that her feelings were out , and warmed up even more when with his reply.

"We're not leaving."

Allura wanted to say something, anything for his thoughtfullness, but was rudely interrupted as the castle's sirens started blaring loudly, and then by Coran a few ticks later when he darted through the doors and towards his command post. "There's a Galra creature coming our way!"

Alarmed, Lance went to front of the bridge along with the mustached man, a different kind of worry on his face as the holo-screen showed the rest of team cramed in the Red Lion. Again the princess felt the anger burst in her chest, her voice much firmer than a few moments before as she disclosed her thoughts to the team, her unbreakable facade coming back together.

"I  _knew_ he could not be trusted!"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> During the episode "Shiro's Scape" Lance stays behind at the castle and that was it. Nothing about why'd do that, and what happening while the rest of the team was talking to Ulaz, and that REALLY bothered me when I watch it for the, uhm, 3rd time? 4th time? Anyway, as much of jerk our blue boi was in the 2 first seasons, I still think he'd be insightfull about the whole situation.  
> At the same time, Allura looked very vulnerable while talking about Zarkon, and I associated that with her feeling towards the team that she disclosed in S8-1.  
> So, yep, that's it!


	6. Paladins & their cow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tale of adventure. A tale of friendship. A tale of running around the castle.  
> The tale of how they found a place for their cow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S2 - Right after the ep. 7 "Space Mall"  
> Kaltenecker doesn't get the attention she deserves, and I take that personally. Being a cow in the middle of a space war must be difficult [nods sagely].  
> 

And for the record, I wrote this crack while listening to this:<br />

[OST](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo6Cgbvmp4U)

******

 

"Is... that a cow?"

Well, duh.

"Uhum, the name is Kaltenecker."

Cue a long 'moo' from Kaltenecker.

Shiro felt a sweatdrop slide down his temple as he stared at the animal, but decided that their new... guest probably would not be a source of problem. Well, a  _new_ source of problem. But then Keith asked about the Black Lion, and Shiro was right back to his position as a leader as planning conversation followed, and not even Pidge's desperate cry over a non-functional game would distract him. Or Allura's comical tries to ge her hair back to normal.

Or at least that was the plan before Coran called, ever so cheery through the holo-screen from the Teludav engine room and for some reason his skin was glowing, as if he's covered in intergalactic glitter. "I'll need at least a quintant to get the Teludav working!"

Allura, her hair still a bit of a mess but somewhat back to normal, frowned. "Is it not possible to finish it in a few vargas?"

"I'm afraid not, princess. Installing and callibrating all the lenses is a delicate work. We don't want a repeat from your missadventures as a little girl stuck around the castle's vent system, right?"

The princess gruntled and color spread through her chocolate colored skin. Hearing giggles in the background, Shiro didn't even try to imagine what were the results of said 'missadventure' and how it came to be, so he opted to go the pragmatic path. "What can we do to help?"

"Not much actually..." responded the redhead, tugging at his mustache as the glowing sparkles seemed to intesify. "Number 5 might be able to help some, but I fear the radiation from the Teludav's main power source might scramble her brain like one your earthlings scrambled 'eggises' dishes."

"...Ok, no help, then." Sighed Shiro, trying his best to NOT think about Pidge with a damaged neural system. "So what, now?"

"I don't know! Just take your time and relax, ay? Oh my ANCIENTS...!" yelled Coran from somewhere, not on screen anymore, as the sound of falling debris streamed through the feed before it shut off.

In the bridge the group stared at each other, wondering if they should be helping about their resident crazy space uncle, but afraid of going nuts in the process. Sensing the unease in the room, Allura coughed as a way to get their attention, her snow colored curls finally back at the usual bun, and said as she headed out. "I'll go down and help Coran with whatever he needs. You may do what you want with your free time. I reckon everyone is tired from all the battles."

"Totaly wiped, actually." Murmured Hunk as he carefuly folded the apron that noone really knew where he got it from. "I'll take on the offer and just sleep... and have a snack."

And Hunk went after Allura, out of the picture, leaving Lance, Shiro, Keith and Pidge.

"I didn't buy a gem like Killbot Phantasm I to not play it. I'll MAKE it work even if I die!" said the small girl, gripping the game in her hands tightly and a maniac fire in her eyes. And just like that she sarted out, probably towards the makeshift lab in Green's hangar.

Lance, Shiro and Keith remained in the bridge, looking at each other awkwardly. The last few days... quintants... or whatever (Shiro didn't know what to make of time anymore), the group had been too busy helping planets, fighting the Galra and whatnot, and even their trip to the Space Mall had been not short of an adventure it seemed, if the bump on Lance's forehead and the random cow were anything to go by. Now that they had some unexpected time off...

Shiro didn't know what to do. Normaly he'd take a book and hole himself up in his room until he could finish said book (he was a bit of a compulsive reader), but as far as he knew, the castle didn't have a library. And if there was library, everything would be in any language except english or japanese, so that was a moot point. Maybe he could do some calisthenics?

' _I need a hobby._ ' He thought grimly.

Meanwhile by his side Keith was going through the same thought process. But differentely from Shiro, he already had an idea of what to do. Their trip to the mall was pretty eventfull, but the socially awkward boy still had a lot of nervous energy in his veins and he needed to work it out to not get too grumpy. So, he was deadset on spending the rest of the day on the training deck.

Nodding his head at his own decision, Keith had just moved his foot when he felt a long, lanky arm on his shoulder. A grunt to his right told him the Shiro was in the same predicament. Between then, their resident goofball looked from one to the other, a mischievious grin on his face.

Cue shivers.

"So." started Lance, locking the two teammates in a strong half hug. "We have Kaltenecker."

"Uh, yeah?" responded Keith, not liking the tone in the Cuban's voice.

"She needs a home."

Shiro raised one of his eyebrows, not liking what the question insinuated. "Well, yes...?"

Lance's grin grew bigger, and Keith and Shiro stared at each other, not liking at all what their mutual friend's tone implied. Around them, Lance's grip tightened, locking both darkheads in place with no option to scape.

"Let's find a place to our girl."

The two lowered their heads and sighed, resigned.

That wasn't going to end well.

******

For their partial relief, Kaltenecker was a cool cow. 

For the few minutes they were walking through the castle, the animal just chilled on her hoverboard, her eyes serene and droopy and mooing calmly here and there. Not even Lance laying on her back seemed to phase the cool cucumber that Kaltenecker was.

"So, Team Leader, Samurai" called the lanky teen as he checked his perfectly clipped nails. "Do you have any ideas?"

Keith, being the hothead he was, turned to Lance, his tone annoyed at his friend's lack of common sense. "YOU'RE the one that dragged us into this. Don't YOU know of place for the cow that YOU bought?"

"I didn't BUY her, she was a bonus! And no, I have no idea where to house her."

"Calm down, you two." interrupted Shiro, bringing out his best Space Dad... oops, best Team Leader voice. "We'll think of something. For now, we could let Kaltenecker walk, right? To spend some energy?"

Huffing indignantly and sending a stink eye in Keith's direction, Lance got off the animal and gently nudged her off the hover board. The cow didn't protest, and ever so slowly got to the floor, her calm demeanor kind of unsettling to Keith. The boy with a mullet didn't know much about animals other than dogs, much less about cows, but Kaltenecker's behaviour almost reminded him of the calm before the storm, and that particular thought sent shivers down his spine.

Lance didn't seem to mind as much though, patting the animal affectionately, almost as if he was used being close to bovines and knew how to deal with them. Keith could almost feel like he could get along with him in that situation.

Almost.

"What now?" Lance asked, oblivious to his friend's musings, as he continued to walk while leading the cow down the corridor alongside Shiro. The older man scratched his temple with the human hand, deep in thought. Apparently none of them had any idea where to leave Kaltenecker, and somehow that was getting on Keith's nerves. He needed something to do, not just walk around the castle with Shiro, a cow and a dork.

Whelp, space do listen to wishes sometimes.

As they were going through the kitchen, all they could register was a desperate "NOT AGAIN!" before hell broke loose. 

First, a wave of food good hit all of them face first and blinded the group.

Second, a particular strong wave hit Kaltenecker's rear, and the cow began to moo uncontrollably out of panic in the middle of the food goo storm before she ran off at full speed.

Third, in her panic, Kaltenecker somehow collided with Shiro, said Shiro fell across her back and he stayed like that as the animal darted off somewhere in the castle, leaving a baffled Lance and an irritated Keith behind.

"What just happened!?" yelped Lance as more food goo hit him in the stomach.

"I don't know, but we have to help Shiro!" replied Keith, avoiding the attack deftly after the first wave. When he was able to somewhat collect himself, he grabbed the Latino's wrist and ran off the direction the cow ran off to. "Come on!"

Meanwhile, in the kitchen Hunk was in distress as he tried to avoid the food attack yet again, crying inside at how he was being betrayed a second time by his most beloved source of internal peace. Oh, the heartache.

******

It took a few minutes for Shiro to organize his thoughts as food goo went inside his mouth and nostrils and sudden gust of wind that swished his white fluff around. Below him, whatever he layed upon was moving freneticaly, panicked moos echoing through the hallways as more wind sent the goo and stiff fur further into his nasal vents, making him cough, sneeze and gag.

Wait a second.

Mooing. Rocking. Weird fur. 

HE WAS RIDING KALTENECKER?

Gingerly cleaning his face off the green gunk, he finally assessed his current predicament, and  _yes_ he was laying across a raging cow that was running through the Castle of Lions and probably bulldozing everything and everyone that appeared before her.

" _BULLdozing. Seriously Takashi Shirogane?!_ "

"Kaltenecker, hold on!!" he yelled, trying to adjust himself on the animal's broad back. Once he was sitting more or less comfortably he tryed to find a way to control her, but before he could do anything, the cow turned a corner abruptly and almost send him crashing into the opposite wall, forcing the asian to hold on Kaltenecker's thick neck for dear life.

For one second he might have yelped like a little kid (but he wouldn't admit it. Like,  _ever_ ).

And so the stampade continued, Shiro and the mooing cow storming towards known and unknown parts of the castle.

 ******

"SHIRO'S BEEN ABDUCTED!"

No shit, Jose.

"KEITH, SHIRO'S BEEN ABDUCTED BY A COW!"

"SHUT UP, LANCE!" was the not very empathetic response, but who cared at this point?

Lance and Keith ran neck in neck, following the trail of food goo on the floor and on the walls. The mess was incredible, the green fluid splayed obnoxiously on the floor and walls like a very bad child's prank. Somewhere, on the other end of the hallway they heard mooing and screaming, and both correctely assumed it was Shiro. Neither blamed him for the scare, really.

And then a few ticks later they got to the intersection, looking left and right and wondering where the cow went, as there was no more goo to follow. Flaring his nostrils, Keith smelled the air and tryed to pinpoint the right direction. Lance, on the other hand, screamed at his comms, asking if anyone had seen a crazed cow and it's victim, and receiving various baffled "WHAT?"s and that "No, we didn't see such bizarre scene" in return.

And then Keith sensed it, that distinct smell of dirty fur and manure that seemed to follow cows around.

"Lance, this way!" the bow yelled, grabbing the Cuban by the collar and dragging him down the hall tha led to the Green Lion's hangar.

Where Pidge was.

******

Somewhere in the background, a certain Gremlin's comms transmitted Lance's deranged questioning, something about 'crazed cow' and 'victim', and just to avoid further annoyance, she turned it off and went back to her current puzzle.

"Quiznacking super advanced space tech." murmured Pidge, pulling this and that cable and using this and that coding program as she tried to adjust the incompatible Altean devices to the earthen console. It seemed that Earth's game programming, different from other technologies,did not click well with other space junk, wich made no sense but the genius girl was working around it anyway because noone got in the way of her and video games.

Until she heard noises.

WEIRD animal noises.

And when Pidge says 'animal' she includes humans in the frame.

Curious, she went to hangar's entrace, her gut telling her that something was terribly wrong. So, just in case, she prepared her bayard, her grapling hook ready and set to attack.

Hiding behind the wall, she listened to the racket, wondering what kind of space creature could make such a fuss. Breathing in, she looked in the hallway, seriously expecting a goo monster or even a smallish robeast sent by the Galra. But what she saw instead was so bizarre, so confusing, so out of this world, it took her a minute to process.

A screaming black paladin on a super scared black and white Kaltenecker.

Oh. A crazed cow and it's victim. 

"PIDGE, MOVE!" screamed Shiro, his face distorted with panic. Withouth thinking, the girl obeyed, jumpind to the side as the animal and the paladin whizzed by her and ran directly towards her desk. And towards her incomplete console.

Bewildered, Pidge shoot her weapon, the green plasma hook flying rapidly as it hit the floor close to where Kaltenecker was, but instead of deviating the bulldozing animal, it got even more scared and now started kicking around, poor Shiro barely holding on for dear life and looking like an untrained cowboy in a rodeo.

"Shiro!" came Keith's voice behind her, then stopping besides her as he stared at the unbelievable scene before him.

Lance, in all his dignified panic, stopped by the door and got his tablet out from his coat and took a picture, just for keepsake. Meanwhile, he directioned his two stumped friends, because  _someone_ had to come with a plan, righ? "Pidge, go the left and try to send Kaltenecker  against the wall! Keith, take off the horrible jacket and try to get her attention!"

"WHY ARE YOU GIVING THE ORDERS?!"

"'CAUSE I KNOW ABOUT COWS, NOW HURRY UP!"

And so they followed the instructions, somewhat begrudgingly, and positioned themselves. Pidge went left, stopping between the deranged animal and her treasures, and used her weapon to try and scare the animal away, while Keith went to the right and waved his red jacket, sweating like crazy after all the running. Meanwhile, Shiro didn't know what was going on nor where was up and where was down, just accepted that at some point he was going to puke.

The plan somewhat succeeded. Kaltenecker indeed went towards the wall, startled by that weird sharp thingy in the lil' human's hand and attracted by that waving colorless piece of cloth that potentially harm her. In the meantime, Lance approached as stealthily as he could, as possibly close during the racket, and jumped towards the leash and grabbed it when the cow stopped moving for 5 seconds.

Pulling with all his strenght, Lance digged his heels in the ground, his palms heating up with the friction as Kaltenecker pulled on the other side. At some point, Keith and Pidge also grabbed the leash, grunting with the exertion and somehow maneuvering together.

After a few ticks of grunts, swearing and generalized panic, the cow finally started to somewhat calm down, tugging at the restraints more out of reaction than to actualy get free, moving her weight from one hoof to another and mooing occasionaly. Or at least, she calmed down enough to Shiro slide down and become a moaning crumpled form on the ground.

Worried, Keith went to Shiro.

Relieved, Pidge went back to her desk to garantee her project was intact.

Letting a tired breathe out, Lance patted languidly on Kaltenecker's back, trying to not fall on his knees out of exhaustion.

What noone expected however is that the cow would moo and start running derangedly again, dragging a screming Lance behind her and into the hallways. 

Keith, Pidge and Shiro just stared.

"Should... we go after him?" asked the girl scratching her messy caramel locks.

Keith looked at the general direction Lance was dragged to, but snapped out of his reverie when Shiro grunted besides him, his hand on the head as the asian tried to stabilize his brain. "Nah." Keith finaly said. "He knows about cows."

Deranged screams echoed through the walls, sounding as if someone was in dire danger or was about to die.

"... Take care of Shiro, Pidge."

"Uuuuh... ok?"

******

A few levels below, Coran walked leisurely across the halls, his skin glowing faintly. Working it the main structure of the Teludav let whoever was there susceptible to radiation, and in order to avoid it, both Coran and the princess had to change their skin composition, leading to the whole glowing situation. However, reverting the shift required more time, so Coran was stuck with that teal skintone for a while.

Analysing the data on his holo-screen, the Altean didn't notice the racket until he heard Lance's high pitched voice a bit too close for confort.

"CORAN, LOOK OUT!"

"Huh?" he mused, looking up just in time in to see the big bulldozing animal, panicking and glueing himself to the wall a few ticks before it trampled all over him. The black and white fur was a blur as it ran by him, Lance yelling like a mad man as he was dragged away behind it.

Coran stared at the distancing duo, baffled and not fully understanding the situation. Then, a few more ticks later, he heard someone running, and widened his blue eyes as a huffing Keith ran full speed by him. He held up his hand, intending to ask about the ordeal, but the brunette just shouted "Not, now Coran!" and went away.

The redhead STARED.

"So bizarre."

******

That was it, he was going to die. Not in a glorious combat, not saving innocent people from the clutches of a dictatorial empire, not from incredible battle wounds. No, it'd be because his new cow got startled and wouldn't calm down for nothing in the universe.

But he was not done fighting yet.

Still grabbing the leash for dear life, Lance pulled himself up, trying to stand and gaining some control that way, but that was easier said than done. Behind him, at some point, he saw Keith still running in an unfruitful attempt to save his sorry ass from that even sorrier situation, and Lance thanked him in the back of his mind (he'd never say it though).

Anyhow, Kaltenecker entered an empty salon at some point, a really bright one that had a floor carpeted by alien grass for reasons the Cuban couldn't even fathom. Different from earthen grass, though, this one was much softer and with some luck would not leave his already wrecked skin in an even poorer situation. Whatever plant it was, however, it's the necessary item to finally calm the damn cow down.

After running in circles for a few minutes, Kaltenecker started slowing, shifting from full gallop to trottle, to fast walking and finally to a stop, when she decided to bow down and grase the delicious, juicy looking grass.

The boy let go of the leash, blowing air on his red palms to calm down his poor skin and wondered if Allura had some nice hand cream in her cosmetic stash. Meanwhile, as Kaltenecker ate to her hearts content, in came a running Keith, halting for a few seconds as he took in their weird room before spotting the teammate and running towards him.

"Lance?" he called, looking down at his friend as he lay down somewhat comfortably on the weird carpet of grass. "Are you all right?"

Lance snorted, finding his concern funny and heartwarming at the same time. "Yeah, just peachy." Then, he looked around, taking in the big space that salon was, and commented more or less jokingly, "We found a home for Kaltenecker."

Keith huffed incredulously, and crossed his arms. Why did he even care anymore?

****** 

After the hectic afternoon... evening... morning... well, after that hectic time of the day, they talked to Allura and asked permission to use that space to house their new animal, and to general relief she conceded, saying that room was actually where Allura herself took care of her own pets before they all ran away (and noone dared to ask the reason). Lance was beyond happy, somehow still loving the cow even after she dragged him and Shiro all around the castle.

In the end of the day Keith DID get the workout he wanted though, so by the time he ultimately got to his room he was ready to sleep. But not before a good shower, of course, because he was not the uncivilized person some people back on Earth thought he was.

After getting out of the bedroom and sitting on his bed, Keith grabbed his memento, the elegant knife left by his mother, and analysed the details for the umpteenth time. It became a sort of ritual after his pops died, and after finding out about the Blade of Marmora, it was almost an obssession.

Why did he have it? Why did his missing mother have it? He had a million questions he deeply wanted to ask dancing in his mind, but he feared the answers just as much.

Tightening his grip over the handle, Keith laid down and closed his eyes, the luxite blade close to his heart as fatigue took over his conciousness. He'd get his answers tomorrow, as dreadful as the could be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG, this chapter was a complete mess. Writing Keith is a total challenge, and more so when a cow is involved in the mess. And I suck at humor lol.  
> By the way, I have a serious case of super idiot sense of humor, so excuse me.  
> By the way 2, did you know that bovines are color blind?! Neat huh  
> By the way 3, does anyone else like Varkon, the security guard? I dunno I, but seriously like him lol


	7. Sharpshooter: recognition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro, Allura and Kolivan are discussing who goes where in order to defeat Zarkon once and for all, and our resident Space Dad realises he'll have to take a certain Blue Paladin with him.  
> He feels super guilty, but can't help worrying about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S2 - before "The belly of the Weblum" and "Beta Traz"
> 
> I won't even try to hide. I'm a Lance stan, he needs more recognition as a team member and I'm giving this to him.  
> I won't slate anyone else though.

Shiro looked left. A very unreadable Kolivan stands by him, a perpetual scowl adorning his face while going through the Paladins' files that Pidge arranged for him. If the Blade ever found something interesting, he'd never know.

Then, Shiro glanced right. An extremely grumpy Allura is staring at Kolivan with no shame or whatsoever, displeasure all across her refined features. For her credit thoug, she refrained from throwing jabs at the agent, knowing fully well that they needed his help if they ever wanted to succeed.

And them there was Shiro himself. On the outside, he pulled a serious face, one he always wore for debriefings and mission planning back at the Garrison, then here in the Castle of the Lions. However, inside, his stomach churned and revolted, nervousness conquering every fiber of his body before a new potentianlly dangerous task. That's something he'd never admit, though, the team needed him calm and level headed as the only adult (besides Coran, but the Altean's job was very different from his) and Leader. If he externalized his worries, who'd keep the team confident?

So here he was, discussing plans to defeat a 10.000 year old tyrant and his empire. Or at least, part of it.

[ _A few moments earlier_ ]

For a few vargas now, the whole Voltron team (except Hunk. He fell asleep at some point and nobody had the courage to wake up their resident Teddy Bear) and the two agents from the Blade of Marmora had been exchanging ideas to defeat their enemy. A lot of plans had been tossed out utilizing the Blades' intel, from infiltration to blowing up everything to hacking into HQ and turning the ship off. Of course, it hadn't been easy with Allura being skeptical towards their new allies and then with a closed off Keith (and he SO was talking to her later), but after some time they're able to design a nice and constructive plan. And also, everyone was super tired.

So Coran, being an awesome host and somehow not hating on their guests, said during a moment of respite. "So, how about we take a break? We've been brainstorming for a while, I bet you lot's tired!"

"Yeah, I could use a break." murmured Pidge from her post, stretching slim arms above her head and sighing in relief after a very audible and worrying 'pop'. A tense silence followed that, every present being on edge due to the alliance of sorts, still too tender to poke, but extremely important on the long run.

They needed a distraction. And someone was more than glad to offer as he said rather leisurely

"Heeey, how about we show the training deck?!" said Lance out of nowhere, wingling his eyebrows and nudging at Antok, an enourmous warrior even for Galra standards, without a care in the world. "You know, work out, break a sweat, show some skills off?"

"Oh, that's a nice idea. We could exchange some tips!" offered Pidge, eager to ease the atmosphere, but not necessarily looking forward to the work out.

To everyone's surprise and relief (except Kolivan, nothing seemed to phase him), Antok nodded.

"Very well. You shall refresh, and in one varga we'll come back and tie up the loose ends of the plan." said Allura finaly, still wary but somewhat relaxed with Lance and Pidge's apparent ease with the Galra. "However, I still need to exchange some ideas with Shiro and Kolivan, so please go ahead."

With a dashing smile Lance nodded, dragging Pidge and a weirdly silent Keith towards the hallway and waving to the bulky Galra to follow him out the bridge. And then silence, if not for Hunk's snores.

Wich led to the current situation.

"We need a compact, very capacitated team to infiltrate Beta Traz and rescue Slav." mused Kolivan after a long while analysing the files, lenghty arms crossed as he externalised his thoughts. "The prison is extremely well guarded, it will be no easy feat. I'd send one of my own, but my forces are scattered around the Universe in other important bases."

"Pidge and I will go to Beta Traz. With her technological skills and my hand to connect the Galra main system, we can enter without a hitch."

"I concur." said Allura, looking at the scans of the huge prison, her brows furrowed. "But only you two will suffice? The place's enormous."

"Usualy, the Blades go in teams of three to four in order to achieve the best outcome without jeopardizing the mission. I suggest you do the same Black Paladin."

"All right. I guess I'll take Keith, then... What is it, princess?"

At the mention of the Red Paladin, Allura's face contorted. But instead of the distrustful scowl she had adopted until now, it was more of grimace, as if the idea of Keith going into the prison unnerved her.

"Nothing, it's just... Are you sure you want to take  _Keith_ to a  _stealth_ mission?"

"Why?" he asked, truthfuly confused.

"You know, Lance once said he's... a hothead?"

And then it clicked for the man.

Keith stealing his truck all those years ago. Keith commencing fist fights with fellow cadets. Keith using bombs to distract the Garrison. Keith ready to fight good ol' Klaizop. Keith running away because he thought Zarkon was tracking him. And a series of other instances the Red Paladins acted before thinking things through, actions that certanily helped them in many dangerous situations, but that ultimately could expose an operation that required ultmost calmness and silence. He was an amazing fighter, and Shiro trusted  him to always pick up his decisions in the heat of the moment.

But 'stealth' and 'Keith' didn't go well together.

"... I see you point."

 Massaging his temples, Shiro reorganized his thoughts as Allura confirmed then. "Yes, Keith might not be the best option for infiltration and extraction..."

"Fine. How about Hunk? It's seems he's very good at getting his hands on people's diaries." Shiro mused, remembering with certain affection all those times Pidge complained about his unwelcome tendencies to snoop around, and how the Samoan is always worrying about hazarduous outcomes. However, his hopes were crushed as Kolivan denied his suggestion.

"No. The Weblum is a very dangerous creature, and only the Yellow Lion's sturdy armor can withstand an attack if they ever get in danger."

Well, Hunk was down too, which only left... "Lance, then?" Someone whom he was not used to work with, liked to talk a lot and in general didn't strike Shiro as stealthy?

"The Blue Lion's sonar will be useful in localizing Slav." assessed as a matter of fact the Blade, a hand on his chin while analysing Lance's file. "It seems he has long range abilities, it should be useful."

"All right, then while I, Pidge and Lance infiltrate Beta Traz, we send Hunk and Keith to collect the scaultrite. Are you all in agreement?" Allura and Kolivan nodded. "Ok, now, how about we go and see how everybody is doing in the training deck?"

Kolivan nodded again, already heading towards the door, and Shiro released a sigh he didn't notice he was holding. He trusted the Blades, but talking to someone so stony faced as Kolivan was slightely disconcerting... but not as much as talking to Iverson, so no complaints there. 

As he was heading out, though, he felt a slender hand landing on his shoulder, and heard that distinct accent. "Don't worry, Lance is pretty silent when he wants to be."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, he scared me once or twice like that."

Shiro wanted to believe. Seriously, he really wanted to see his teammember in that positive light, but somehow he just couldn't picture the Latino as silent and discreet, all the times he joked around coming to his mind like plague.

Feeling bad and conflicted, Shiro followed Allura out of the bridge and towards the training deck, leaving a peacefuly snoring Hunk behind.

******

Their resident tech expert was not in the observation room of the deck and for some reason that was the first thing Shiro noticed.

"Where's Pidge?"

"Oh, hello there, Number 1! It seems Number 5 had an experiment going on and went out to check it. I'd say she's skipping the drill."

"I see..." 

The observation room was crowded to say the least. It was bad enough with half of the castle's residents, but Antok and Kolivan occupied the same space as three Hunks would, leaving little space to maneuver towards the window where everyone seemed to crowd.

"What's going on?" whispered Allura, trying to not justle too much. "The deck seems to be activated."

"Ah, yes, princess! Our guest here questioned about each paladin's fighting style and we just went along with it! Number 4 is done already, and right now Number 3 is down there, actually."

Curious, Shiro approached the window even more. The group did a lot of team bonding and training together and mind melding, but other than Keith and himself, the man never really saw anyone practiceing on their own. So, seeing a 'demonstration' sounded like a good opportunity to witness that.

As far as he could see, there were five gladiators and three drones in combat mode and ready to strike, except  noone was there to defy them. At the edges of the deck, holo-walls in various sizes were scattered, Shiro assumed it's an obstacle, but there was still no Blue Paladin to bee seen or heard. The teammleader darted his dark eyes across the deck, trying to pinpoint Lance and his blaster, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. He either was not in the deck yet, or...

One gladiator was down.

Then another.

Not much could be seen other than a momentary shadow and a fleeting teal laser, and the enemy was down in a second and everything went back to pregnat impasse. Promptly the robots were frenetically walking amidst the holo-walls in orther to find their target. At one point, one of them started climbing one, only then Shiro spotted small dents on the surface, barely there but enough to climb if you had a jetpack in your disposition.

Tha robot was shot down and crampled to the floor.

At this point, Shiro couldn't help widening his eyes. Around him various reactions occured at the same time, like a slight nod from Antok, Keith's signature gaping mouth when he was impressed (although he still was silent, looking pretty down)  and a "Nice shot" from Coran. Kolivan and Allura remained quite, but he could see a gleam of wonder on the later's crystal colored eyes, while the Galra remained stolid.

Quickliy, all the gladiators were down, leaving only the drones, but those also had little time to engage, getting a wrong shot or two before a hole appeared  on them, not exactly in the center, but enough to disarm and disabilitate them. A few seconds later, Lance could be seen jumping down one of the holo-walls, using his jetpack to avoid a major injury, and going to the middle of the deck, striking one of his poses as he asked through the comms. "How did I go, Coran?"

"Hmm, lookey lookey...! You increased your time by 5 ticks, well done Lance!"

Down there, Lance striked another pose and did his signature finger guns, a wide smile spread on his face as various compliments were tossed at him and the boy gladly took them all. 

Shiro wanted to do something. Compliment him, give him an encouraging slap on his back, or even just mess his hair. But he had not build that kind of intimacy with him, nor did he have the time, for Allura called them back to bridge where Hunk was still asleep to consolidate their plan to defeat Zarkon.

But of one thing he was sure of.

Lance was an great sharpshooter and did get shit done when he needed to. 

 However, as he was thinking that, he noticed Keith's stiff back and hunched shoulders. How he looked at Allura, someone he's accepted as a friend, and liberated a long, suffering sigh; and how his eyes, normally piercing and unfraid, were cast down in seemingly expression of rejection.

At the same time Shiro thought he HAD to tackle that problem, so did other three people, even if one of them was still asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sssssssso... this one is short and kind of sucks?  
> I mean, I had this cool idea of a bunch of little stories in my head, but then I realized that 99.99% of this gap filler is about Lancey Lance, felt bad about it and became kinda hard to write... Granted, Lance's character does lack that cool arc that everyone had, and that's why I'm here, but I still feel kind of bad for neglecting the others...  
> Well, nothing will change, I'm still writing this shit til' the end lol  
> And by the way, episode "Beta Traz" was super cool, but I found it pretty shitty that Lance got the whole load of a failed mission, even though he tried his best and was super BAMF in it. But, oh well. [shrughs]


	8. Let's talk about Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The air is tense with how bitterly Allura's facing the whole galra!Keith situation, and the paladins are dead set on fixing it!  
> The thing is... they never planned it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S2 - sometime before "Best Laid Plans"
> 
> Keith's a warrior, but I doubt he can defend his own heart from the angst at this point! I mean, his still a teenager, and we all know how teenagers emotionaly work.

      Truth be told, Keith is not an easy person to get acquainted to, and he's aware of it. His life was less than ideal, and with harsh environments comes harsh defenses, which led the boy to a path of pricky personality and explosive emotions, resulting in a long, too long list of names that rejected him throughout his late childhood and teenage years, driving him into loneliness and unwanted isolation coated by intense locked emotions.

Then Shiro appeared.

The man, barely an adult when they met, was a well of endless patience and empathy and morals, helping the outcast teen to find something that made his life meaningful: piloting. Of course, the Garrison's rigid rules and teaching system clashed with his fire and resulted in more warning notes than Keith cared to admit. But in the end, it's fullfilling and brought the happiness the boy forgot he could have.

Then Kerberos mission happened.

Much like Pidge, Keith wasn't conviced by the official feeds of 'pilot failure', and yet he had no way to prove otherwise. The following year was full of tears, sorrow and emotional outbreaks, the loss of his surrogate brother a deep knife puncturing and twisting his already bruised heart and deformed his demeanor in an incorrigible way that ultimately led to his expulsion due to disciplinary issues.

Then Voltron happened to brighten his future. And it's not solely because his brother figure Shiro came back (but was 85% of it).

Never he thought such random group composed by such different personalites would evolve in the awesome team he had now. Obviously, lots of head butting, arguments and fights occured and not without a good backlash from Shiro and Allura, followed by Coran's mirthfull tenderness. But all those interactions accrued into something Keith never thought he could have again someday: a family.

But he's half-galra.

He might have just discovered the unknown part of his heritage, and it explained quite a bit of his aggressive behaviour towards unfavorable situations, yet that on itself didn't bother him, it's just another fact about himself. However, it costs him the trust of one member of his family, Allura.

Sometime after destroying the Robeast for good and debriefing about their respective missions, Keith sat on his bed, his gear all but scattered on the floor, as he stared at his luxite blade but did not really see it, mindlessly tracing the simble on the hilt. Rather, he still felt Allura's cold gaze, the way she had brushed him off but actively talked to Hunk and everyone else... Hunk's jokes had been annoying and obnoxious at some point, but they figured things out in the end without damaging their friendship, actually strenghtening it. But Allura's skepticism and coldness... It stung. It's like being back on Earth, to his childhood, when noone cared to look at him because he's 'too problematic'. 'Too aggressive'.

He didn't fit.

******

Allura was feeling a lot of things at the same time, and she felt restless. She was excited with how their plan was progressing, and each passing moment they got closer to defeating the cause of universal suffering, Zarkon. She also wanted to lay on her bed and sleep a quintant away, because by the Ancients was she tired.

However, the princess' uncomfortable with how the paladins had been staring at her for a while now, their camaraderie layred with something bitter she was too afraid to think about. And then there was that snaking sentiment of untrust towards their new found allies, the Blade of Marmora, composed solely by Galra and individuals with Galra heritage. Which led to her last emotion, the underlying guilt that came with the information of Keith' ancestors and how that angered her to no end.

She didn't know what to do. The more she tought about it, the more conflicted she was. Of course, Allura and Keith fought side by side and confided in each other at some point, but she couldn't help remembering and piecing together her teammate's behaviour and fighting style, and how galra-like it was, in all it's brashiness, violence and instinctiveness. How he sometimes seemed to forget everything around him and all consequences until someone intervened. 

Too Galra.

It's too late into the night.

Feeling drained but too awake, Allura got up from her bed. She needed something to distract herself, or maybe someone. As a general knowledge, Pidge is an owl ("It's a nocturnal bird and it can be very violent and territorial when provoked. Like Pidge." - by Hunk), and she generaly spent her free time in her lab down at Green's hangar, where lots of... interesting events occured, she heard. In any case, the princess needed someone to talk to, and the fellow female sounded like a good option for annuviating her thoughts and maybe getting some advice.

So, donning her posh robe and adjusting her  wavy hair, the Altean made beeline for the makeshift laboratory.

And indeed, there was Pidge, sitting by her lion's mechanical paws in her soft green pajamas and actually wearing the lion slippers as she probably typed away a series of programming codes into her trusty computer. Her short hair was tousled and in need of a brush, but the crease in her brows snitched her state of awakeness.

"Pidge?" Allura called, her voice barely a whisper but echoing loudly in the spacious hangar and reaching the gremlin's ears, catching her attention. Her reaction, though, was a tad colder than usual. The princess couldn't tell if the reason's sleep deprivation or something else, more personal.

"Yes, Allura?"

"May I... sit with you? I need some company."

"... Sure." and just like that, Pidge grabbed a pillow from Ancients knows where and placed it besides her, singnaling for the princess to sit there, to which Allura complied happily and ploped down.

However, instead of the usual verbiage the Altean was used to, the paladin remained silent, her eyes barely visible as her glasses reflected the harsh computer light, her mouth a tight line. Feeling restless and out of place, Allura shifted in her sit, wondering if she should start talking, keep quiet, or just go away. It's a weird feelig she's not used to, and the princess is not sure she enjoys it. 

Usually, when accompanying Pidge, the short girl almost instantly lets out a rush of words take over, simply happy about sharing about what she liked and knew with someone with no worries of being interrupted by friends that did't understand. Not that Allura got everything she talked about, but she didn't feel the need to stop her chattering, and it became a nice kind of relationship where the human shared her knowledge and the Altean absorbs it. 

But today it took a feel awkward minutes to start.

"Hey, Allura."

"Uhm... yes, Pidge?"

"Have you ever heard of Nazism and Holocaust?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Then, I'll tell you about it."

"Various and various deca-phoebs ago, Earth was a huge political, social and technological mess. From that mess, came out a man, a militar called Hittler who started spouting stuff about how his own nation and it's residents were of a superior race than other humans, and that time, most of the population went along with it, seeing in Hittler a solution for their missfortune. However, Hittler's speech started to diminish and threaten people that lived in his and other countries, but were not seen as proper 'human' beings: a race called jews, homossexuals... generaly people that didn't fit in his definition of a superior species and somehow interfered the society. And then... he ordered to kill them all."

"No! That's horrible! Why'd he do that?"

"Yeah, it's horrible. Millions of people, mainly jews, were assassinated on cold blood and in the most heinous ways just because they were different. It's such a big part of human history, it received it's own name: Holocaust."

"And nobody thought about stopping it?!"

"Well, yes, lot's of people saved quite a number of children from certain death. But the world was in a huge war back then, and not much could be done until their leader went down. But it did end, and nowadays this kind of political alignement is condemned. Now, Allura, I have two question."

Feeling numb with all that horrifying information, Allura didn't feel like she could answer anything. The story reminded too much of their current situation, and that brought a bitter taste to her mouth. However, Pidge stared at her, calculationg hazel eyes expecting the moment for the final blow.

"What is it?"

"After what I told you, do you see me, or the others, differently?"

Did she?

Allura reflected, looking at Pidge. Pidge, who had a tendency to bark at people when angry, but loved her family and friends more than anything else. Allura thought about Hunk, with his intimidating frame and warm hugs, a gentle smile when cooking for others or tinkered with his gadgets. She thought about Lance, who might have an insufferable flirting tendencies, but smiled brighter than anyone else and protected others with his own life. She thought about Shiro, a man plagued horrible memories of torture and imprisonment, but confidently offered his hand to those in need. And then she tought about Keith, as inconsequent as he was, but still had a fond expression when thinking about how everyone in the Universe is connected.

"No." Allura replied, vehemently so. "You're still the same wonderful paladins of Voltron to me."

A small smile graced Pidge's features, easing her scowl, but she soon adopted that uninterested poker face again and asked.

"What do you think the people of that nation think of Nazism nowadays?"

Bringing a dark hand to her chin, Allura mused about her answer, but could not come with a satisfying one. The scenario of 'lesser' races was foreign to her and any Altean she had ever met, so she never thought about that. So, with crestfallen eyes, she denied with her head, words faulting her.

"... They regret it. The are _ashamed_ of it. Even mentioning Nazism gets them super upset."

Thats a given, Allura thought. Such horrible actions shouldn't even occur, she tought.

"Just like the Blade of Marmora."

Allura snapped her head, looking flabbergasted. She was so not expecting that verbal slap.

"And Keith also hates what Zarkon did to the universe."

And just like that, Pidge shut her computer down, got up and headed to another place, probably the peacefullness of her room. Meanwhile, Allura's mind, instead of calmer, was even more confused and full of thoughts, the impromptu Earth History Class leaving her speechless and with an heavy knot in the back of her throat.

Meanwhile, Pidge slaped herself mentaly. Ok, Allura ws being immature and needed a good lecture about it, but bringing out one of the most horrifying events of humanity that clashed so much with her ideals... Maybe she came off too strong, and she felt totaly horrible about it. But didn't regret it.

"Tomorrow will be sooooo awkward."

******

 A few vargas later, after turning and rolling in her soft blankets most of the sleep cycle, Allura woke up feeling torpid and her head a mess of jumbled thoughts about missions and galra and humans' own sins. She needed something to clear her head, probably eat something. Or maybe she'd finaly taste that drink similar to Earth's 'coffee' (strange name by the way, sounds lke 'cough'), a find in Olkarion's forest that Shiro and Pidge were more than happy to consume. Maybe a bit too happy.

Lance sipped it from time to time, but Hunk controlled his intake because the lanky boy got so more hyper than usual that it became hard to keep up with him. Hunk, responsible for the brewing, was not that much of a fan himself as it messed up his stomach and made it burn, but he was happy to comply. Shiro did function better after a cup of coffee in the morning, and Pidge was much easier to deal with when she had three. And Keith... apparentely was not that much of fan either. She still had to see if him partake in that habit.

All that to say the princess headed to the kitchen.

To her relief, Hunk was there. He was all about anxiousness and fear and endurance during battle, but while doing his mechanical wonders and behind a kitchen counter he looked calm and collected, especially now that he was able to figure out pretty much all of the alien ingredients he found. That morning, though, the big guy had opted for a simple meal of food goo, serving himself a full bowl of it when he saw her.

"Hey, Allura! How's it going?" he greeted, shoting her a big grin. "Man, I woke up craving food goo for some reason. What 'bout you?"

"I... think I'll have some of that drink... coffee was it?"

Hunk raised an eyebrow and blinked once. Then twice. One more time. "You sure?"

"Yes."

"Really, really sure?"

"... Yes?"

Hunk shrugged, then went about preparing the bevarage. A few minutes later, a distinct scent filled the room, both conforting and warming, and a cup filled to the brim with a dark liquid was placed before Allura. "Warning: it's bitter."

Paying the big guy no mind, the princess brought the cup to her lips and sipped. 

Bitter was an understatement. Allura used all her willpower to not spit it out and pursing her lips, because it's on a complete different level of horrible. If earthlings actually drank that black water all the time, Lance had no right to talk about Nunvill! "This tastes disgusting!"

Meanwhile, Hunk was hunched over, trembling as he snickered and tried his best to not burst out laughing, his eyes tearing up with the effort. "Man, this is so funny! Not as much as Keith though! [wheeze] Oh my gosh, I'm dying!"

At the mention of the name, Allura became despondent. But the general atmosphere was amicable and very different from Pidge, so instead of frowning, she tried to keep the conversation up, hoping Hunk wouldn't choke on his own laughter. "Keith doesn't like it either?"

"Ahahahahaha my belly hurts... Eh, no. The first time he drank it... Man, it's still funny! He scrunched his nose  _so_ much, he looked liked one of your mice! You know, the scowling one, Plachu? Oh, oh, he also put his tongue out, like a cat... Ahaha, I can't stop laughing, it's too funny!" And Hunk kept laughing and laughing, as if the image of Keith acting like an disgruntled mouse was the most amusing thing in the world.

... Now that she imagined it, it did look adorable.

And so she laughed it off, already feeling better and somehow feeling a connection to the boy, even if it's just over a drink. Talking to Hunk did that to people.

******

Some time later, after the group ate their fill of breakfest, they gathered at the bridge to discuss their plan one more time, adding details and pointing out where things could go wrong (mostly Slav, the paranoid alien) and correcting details. Allura wasn't 100% with them, her eyes flickering from one figure to another, but she specially couldn't look at Keith, normaly very active in such assemblies, but looking crestfallen and out of character, and the princess felt the guilt crawling in her stomach again, and even more when Pidge acted awkward. She remembered their conversation, too.

_"Keith also hates what Zarkon did to the universe."_

In the end, not much progressed, what with two pivotal members not paying attention and stumbling on their words. Kolivan didn't look pleased (at least she thought that... reading Kolivan's as hard as translating Poellemian traditional scrolls, and those took phoebs!), and soon enough Shiro called it off. 

"Tomorrow's the grand day." he said in that calm, steady tone that grounded and soothed everyone. "I guess we'd better rest and save our energy to defeat Zarkon."

Voltron and Blade and Slav nodded, all probably feeling tense  with the upcoming battle. Maybe taking a day to regroup was not such a bad idea... but that's easier said than done, even more when Slav came about their probabilities of getting hurt or killed during that respite.

Allura was merely aware of her surroundings, the bridge steadily emptying as the members of the coallition retired to their own quarters or tasks, leaving the princess to her own thoughts while she stared at the holograms of the Imperial Central Command and the layouts of their plan. Therefore, she didn't notice the two figures nearby, one black and the other blue, discussing, their words just a buzz in the backgroung.

But then the buzz was gone, and when she actually noticed it, Lance was standing by her side again as silently as a predator, almost scaring the shit out of her.

"Oops, perdón, princess." he said with his typical shit-eating grin.

She didn't reply, just making and indignant face at him, and gaining an awkward smile in return. After that, she expected either some flirting on his part or maybe an invitation to relax and have a some beauty time with him. However, just like he did some time ago, he rattled her bases by asking the one question she didn't want to answer.

"Why are you hating on Keith?"

"What? I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"Then what about you? You were at odds with him in the beginning."

Allura bit her tongue, regretting her words. She didn't know what to expect as an answer. Lance was a jokester, but she came to realise his responses could be unpredictable in this type of tense situations. He could brush it off, laugh and answer with a jest or go all serious. The princess didn't know what facet would come out as the doboshes stretched between them. Regardless of her worries though, the boy started to talk.

"Ok, telling the whole story's a drag, so here goes the short version."

Allura finaly looked at him, expecting an indignant scowl of sorts, but getting a sigh and a stiff smile instead. Whatever he was going to say, it's obviously something that must eat his insides.

"Keith's an awesome guy with awesome talent that let us normal people behind in his dust, just to go and get himself expelled and leave everything behind, and I as a perfectly standard human being resented him for that." He said fastly and in one brief, Allura barely understanding his words. Seeing, her confusion, though, Lance decided it was worth explaining, turning to her with a hand on his hip and sighing again, as if saying everything out loud physically hurt him.

"Look, Keith's this awesome, super talented cadet with a connection to an idol like Shiro. I was in the cargo class, working my butt off to get into fighter class. When I finaly got in, I'm told it's only because a top student flunked out... At the time I thought he just threw everything away, and I was seriously angry. Boderline hated his guts, actually."

"But... you don't hate him anymore? You're always riling him up."

"What, after surviving all the battles and climbing our way to the pool together? Not really. But it's funny seeing him all angry, so I just keep poking his nerves. He still pisses me off, but it goes both ways."

Allura nodded, musing on his words. Lance and Keith didn't always get along, but they had indeed become a force to behold when fighting together, one clearing the path and trusting the other to protect his back, that image putting a whole new meaning about Keith's fighting style and how it's not really about being half-galra, but about how he believed in his teammate's capabilities.

Not galra like.

"But you know what, princess. Keith is talented, but..." said Lance after a long while, looking serious and straight into her eyes.

Allura felt a drop of sweat on her back, those piercing blue eyes disorientating her for a tick.

Until he opened his trademark grin, tan fingers on his sharp jawline, and said.

"... I'm still the most handsome."

Allura snorted. Typical Lance.

******

 Later that day, one Altean girl was walking around the castle, organizing her thoughts and mending her perception about a certain teammate with a heritage that concerned her at first, but now was simply a shadow that could be ignored. The problem now was how she'd breach the issue with him without further emotional hurt.

And that's why she's browsing around: she needs counceling and is looking for Coran. But he's nowhere to be found, a letter in his bedroom's door sayinh he's out doing final checkings on the Teludav with Slav.

Sighing, Allura went for the only other person that knew enough about Keith to help her, and that was Shiro.

Finding him was easy enough, soon spotting him within the Black Lion's hangar meditating, most likely reinforcing his bond with the mechanical creature. She couldn't tell for how much time he's been there, or if he's still going to meditate longer, but the princess opts to wait.

Half a varga passed, feeling like a deca-phoeb, but the man finaly comes back to the realm of the living, looking peacefull and somewhat refreshed. Standing up and and stretching his limbs, it didn't take him much time to notice the visitor and smiled, calling her over with his flesh hand.

Squirming and feeling awkward, Allura complied. Shiro soon noticed her disconfort and asked, an ever pleasant on his lips.

"Is something wrong, princess?"

"... Actually, yes." Breath in, breath out, calm down. "I want to apoligize to Keith and want some guidance. Could you help me?"

Shiro's eyes widened, as if he was not expecting her words at all, but the expressions' soon replaced by a frown of concern. "Apologize about what?"

"About how... I've treated him these last few quintants. I've behaved horribly and I want to redeem myself."

"That's true." said Shiro matter of factly and making Allura flinch at his honesty. The way he looked at her was not that great either, as if she's a child that disapointted her father. "Keith always had problem in connecting with people, and people always had a problem with his temper. But when he sees someone as a friend, it's for life. Giving him the cold shoulder probably hurt him deeply."

Well, that worked wonders to make Allura feel worse.

"However..." Shiro continued, placing his human hand on her shoulder, smiling at her gently. "He values the truth, and knows about the pain of losing someone dear to you. Be honest with him. I know he'll understand."

Allura nodded, biting her lower lip and looking down. She'd almost forgot that her friend had lost his father deca-phoebs ago, and she felt even worse about that. But if Shiro was saying that sincerety was the better option, then she'd do just that. The question is 'when'?

 Feeling despondent, Allura murmured a low "Thank you" before picking the remains of her dignity and heading out, already putting an apoligy together in her mind. She was practically out of the hangar when Shiro called to her again, looking a bit too smug when saying.

"Keith also appreciate hugs, just so you know!"

Smiling sadly, the princess nodded and walked away towards her room. She needed time and space to craft her apologies.

******

Sometime later in the castle after dinner, Keith is still pretty down and doesn't want to mingle with the team in the foyer, going to his room instead on the note that he "needed to rest for tomorrow." Allura and Coran were not around either, and their absence was whopping, although they knew the advisor was still checking the Teludav, but the princess was a whole different story.

Leisurely sitting on the couch were the remaining four paladins of Voltron, all tense and nervous. Eyeing his friends worriedly, Hunk decided to ask first. "Why Allura didn't appear for dinner?"

Shiro, sitting besides him, sets a conforting hand on his shoulder and has an easy smile, bringing a bit of relief to the high strung team. "She came to me earlier asking some advice about Keith. She looked sorry about the last few days and wanted to apologize."

"Well, I guess my wise words did the job then." said Lance, his long limbs spread out on the sofa, looking way too smug.

"Wise words?" murmured Pidge, her hazel eyes carrying that offensive doubt that everybody came to love.

"Yeah, I asked why she was hating on the mullet and sorted things out."

Then, Hunk raised his hand looking timid and proud at the same time. "Actually, I also talked to her. She came wanting some coffee and she hated it. And then I said that Keith hates it too and made funny faces at it."

Low snickers floated around, the memory of Keith's scowl coming back to them, but also at the prospect of Allura making faces at their sacred beverage. However, at some point, Pidge looked down, frowning as she partook in the conversation.

"I also talked to her..."

"About what?"

"... About Holocaust, humans and how the Zarkon and Blades are like them. And that Keith doesn't like Zarkon."

Awkward silence ensues, the group looking at their nerd with baffled expressions, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Pidge, the heck?"

"Man, that's heavy."

"I think there were better ways to tackle it..."

Every second, Pidge retracted more and more into herself feeling a slight burn in her cheeks. But she was not about to let everyone patronize her like that!

"I know! But I was so pissed at how she treated Keith! I wanted to shock her, and I'll apologize later. But it worked, right?! She's reflecting!"

Nobody could deny that, so they went back to a more companiable silence, knowing full well that everything will work out. The red paladin's resilient and the princess has high moral standards, and most importantly, they're friends. They'll surely close the rift between them and go back to their friendship.

Feeling as relaxed as they could before going into battle, the paladins laughed, a sense a confort permeating them through their familial bond. And at some point, Lance murmured.

"Yeah. We're a good team."

Everybody concured.

******

Meanwhile at another part of the castle, Coran was looking for the princess, having just come back from a tiring debrief with Slav. It'd been a last minute issue due to Slav's nonending paranoia, and the Altean couldn't not go, even if he felt the urge to talk to Allura about the tense air between her and the other paladins.

It didn't take him much time, finding her in her quarters deep in thought as she brushed the mice. Calling out to her, the princess turned, but instead of the tormented look of the few quintants, she had a determined expression. Feeling that filial affection towards the girl, he smiled and asked. "Did you work things out with the paladins?"

Gracing him with small smile, she nodded.

Coran felt an undying love for his protegee, and the whole team that became their family.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things we know about Allura: her ultimate goal is peace, lost literaly everything 'cause of Galra, likes her mice and sparkly things aaaaaaaand is very stubborn.  
> Therefore, I don't thing she'd come in terms with Keith's heritage without a push from her team ;)  
> And about tha super heavy talk about Holocaust... well, my grampa lost his whole family to it, and I resent Nazists for it. But I found no better example for Pidge's part, and I think she's the type to go round and round until she lands the perfect blow. So yep. Awkward.  
> Hunk and Lance are natural teases, so I kept it lighter. And for Shiro, well emotional is all there is to him.  
> Also, I have to defend a thesis in, like 2 months. Might take some time for the next update. (or not, 'cause I enjoy running away from reality [lol with tears])


	9. Clash of arms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro is gone, and the paladins are trying their best to get back on their feet. But some people deal with loss better than others, and the Red Paladin is not one of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S3 - right before "Change of the Guard" and then right before "Red Paladin".
> 
> Hahahahaha who said I'd take a break to write my thesis? What a liar [sweatdrops]  
> Let's just say that our team needed a break (but not a long one, because war) and something from one episode to the other bothered me quite a bit.

To say the least, the Voltron team was dealing more or less well with the lost of the Black Paladin. And that's saying something coming from Kolivan.

Kolivan was... somber, at best. Too many years in a war tend to desensitize you, specialy when it comes to the loss of someone dear. He still remembered the grief he felt as youngling when his mentor died, sacrificing herself in order to keep another agent in the ranks of the empire. How striken he was when a partner was shot and fell on the spot. But over the years he learned how not to feel so much, although the still regret the loss of his companions durings the last battle.

But at least, Zarkon is gone. But so is the Black Paladin.

Deciding to remain the castle with a few agents in order to support the team, Kolivan could assess their distress. The first three days were the worst, all of the pilots in complete denial of what happened. They cried freely and stuck together, finding confort in the human heat, their advisor managing the situation to the best of his abilities, even if he too was mourning. During those three days, Kolivan observed how different they coped, not only in comparison to Galra, but amog themselves.

The Red Paladin's an emotional trap ready to explode, with triggers in most unexpected places, and so he kept to himself, either in his room or in the training deck when he was not enveloped in a hug in the common room. The Green Paladin was silent, eyes wide as she checked the BLIP sensors every five doboshes, sometimes eating to much and sometimes not at all. The Yellow Paladin cried and baked like never before, preparing delicious meals for the Blades and Voltron, but barely touching the food himself. The Blue Paladin stuck to close to the previous, also not eating much, eyes always red for crying so much and hugging him and his teammember whenever he could. The Alteans tried their best to anchor the team, but were gradualy being dragged down by the humans, their hearts also heavy with loss.

The first on his feet was the Yellow Paladin.

On the fourth day, he woke up asking Coran what needed repairing or if someone in that galaxy needed help, his eyes unwavering and determined to get back to work. He also started eating like normal andexcitedly explaining in details his dishes to the Blades instead of just apatheticaly placing them. Also, he'd go down to the Green Paladin's alcove... excuse me, laboratory where she hid herself and soon after was dragging her into society, sometimes across his shoulders like a sack of supplies.

The Blue Paladin followed soon after.

Apparently, seeing someone in action helped him regain control over his emotions and started actively helping the princess on her duties as a diplomat, if not by talking, by easing the humors of the presents and helping the Yellow Paladin in rescuing planets. And when not doing that, he constantly sought his friends, making sure to keep them company, especially the Red Paladin whom stayed too much time fighting androids. Sometimes the Blue Paladin'd humor him and spar for a while, other times he'd risk his life also dragged  the hothead to eat.

Then it was the Green Paladin

Tired of being  manhandled, she started coming up herself, still with proeminent eyebags, but there nevertheless. Soon, she was back in the fight, often going into solo missions and coming back with medical supplies of food, but mostly she went after Galra intel or investigate suspicious activities on the outer corners of the current galaxy. Not only that, the small human restarted every technological project she had and was often seen talking to one of his Blades that was most versed in it, increasing Castle defenses and attack prowess.

At last, the Red Paladin was back.

Still emtionaly unstable and prone to explode, still training too much, but always participating in raids and liberation missions that required more firepower and actualy appearing for debriefing. He'd also join his teammates in more social activities in the common room, where they took a liking to eat, conversing and watching the others playing a mistifying game of sorts that resulted in lots of frustated yells, but also a good amount of laugh. But most importantly, he started looking for their missing Black Paladin whenever he could, wherever was possible.

In two movements, the humans were mostly back to normal. They were indeed resilient creatures. And about to go to another battle.

Walking into the Bridge with the other Blades, Kolivan spotted a very nervous Yellow Paladin at one side going over the holo-map of Puigi, and on the side the Blue Paladin talking to the princess, probably a last minute recap about the next mission. For all his boisterousness, the lanky human worked efficiently, most of their joined endeavors ending without a hitch. It actually surprised the Blade how well they could work together with that difference in behaviour.

Finishing their final assembly, princess Allura smile supportively at the paladin and walked away, the human looking at her with something akin to infatuation, but not quite there yet, until he spotted the agents.

"Hey, Kolivan!" he called overexcitedly and waving to them, then striking one of his so called 'poses'. "Are you ready to Razzle Dazzle' these guys?!"

Kolivan wasn't sure what 'razzle dazzle' meant, but he recognised an attempt to boost morale when he saw one, the Yellow Paladin snorting and instantly relaxing a succesful result. "Come on you show off! Let's get this fight over with."

Laughing loudly, the Blue Paladin complied and headed to the Blue Lion.

* * *

 "It's time to figure out how to reform Voltron."

That's what Keith said after he finaly restored his common sense, and the team was eager to comply. The four lions were a force to recon, but it's Voltron that brought actual hope to people and therefore they needed it asap. However, in Lance's mind there's something nagging him, something to do with political leaders and a certain mullet-head that overstepped his limits, and how that almost destroyed their attempts ar recruiting planets to the Coallition.

If not for Hunk's quick thinking and offering food and Allura's calming demeanor, that assembly had everything to spiral downwards into failure. The princess was deeply upset after that, even if everything worked out fine in the end, but if that kept happening, at some point another foe could emerge and noone wanted that.

Lance waited everybody exit the hangar, knowing well that Keith would remain there for some more time and mourn the loss of a dear friend. He felt bad about the timing, but it was now or never. So, breathing in, he started.

"Hey, Mullet."

"... What is it, Lance?"

He wasn't rejected right off the bat, that's a good sign.

"Sssso, now that we decided to... move on... there's something I wanted to point out."

Still frowning, Keith at least decided to look at his friend, raising an eyebrow at him as sign to move on. That wasn't enough to calm his nerves, but maybe they could work it out without a fight.

"It's about those political figures earlier. You snapped at them pretty hard."

"I did." Keith said matter of factly, but having the decency to look away.

"... You should apologize."

"What?"

"... Apologize. After you left, the air was super weird, you know?"

"Why should I?"

Oh, quiznack, he became confrontational. To Lance's dismay, he just might've landed on a mine. Apparently Keith was not as composed as he let out earlier.

"Keith, come on, you can't be serious?"

"All they wanted was to see Voltron! They don't care if Shiro disappeared or died, those guys only wanted someone to fight for them!"

"Are you serious? We've just freed them, they CAN'T fight back yet!"

"Then shouldn't they just trust the Blades? They're pretty nasty to them!"

"Did you hear me? They've just been free, they'll get used to it!"

Keith cluched his fists, thight enough to see the indents of his nails on skin. He didn't know what Lance wanted or where he wanted to get at, but that conversation was grating him. So, with and indignant huff, the Red Paladin turned away, ready to go back to his quarters, when he heard Lance, the boy switching to spanish as he did when irritated.

"Eres un torpe."

He didn't know what 'torpe' meant. He wasn't even sure if the Cuban was talking to him or was just mumbling to himself. But he recognised an insult when he heard one. Usually, he'd let it slide, Lance's always jabbing at him and sometimes the others. However, Keith was feeling particularly angry now, his emotions reigning in, but mostly the tone Lance used in that phrase...

He snapped.

"I won't apologize to anyone! If you wanna be a pushover, so be it! But I'm not taking part in it!"

Lance was visibly crossed, his expressive eyebrow frowning deeply over the fire of his eyes. However, instead of ranting his ears off, the Blue Paladin breathed in long and slow, visibly containing whatever smart retort he had, clenching and opening his palms in an attempt to release the tension.

"Keith." called Lance after some time, his tone much calmer than before and resting a tan hand on Keith's shoulder, which just infuriated the boy even more. "It's not being a pushover. It's about being a decent human being."

"What do you know, Lance?!" shouted the Red Paladin, slaping the hand away and  _not_ feeling guilty upon Lance's hurt expression. "Leave me alone!"

And he dashed away from the hangar.

He ran and ran, until he couldn't hear the Cuban calling for him, probably adding unhonorable words to his name, and was enveloped in the teal light of the castle. Resting on a cold wall and sliding down, Keith tried to control his breathing while a vice like grip overtook his heart, a feeling he knew well... regret.

Regret for snapping at the dignataries and throwing their own powerlesness in their faces. Regret for abandoning the search for Shiro (for now). Regret for hurtin his friend.

"I can't lead them, Shiro." Keith murmured, his voice breaking with raw emotion. "Not like this".

And he stayed like that, hunched against the wall, until his heartbeat calmed and burn behind his eyes disappeared, his sole companion the hum of the castleship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... What is this stuff I wrote? I just might review it later...  
> Well, we got some Kolivan! I like to think the Voltron gang is buddy-buddy with the Blades despite their differences!  
> Now, about that cringey argument...  
> In S3-1 Lance is super nice and supportive and encourages Keith to move on, but in S3-2 he's all "I doN't wAnt yoU as mY leaDer" out of nowhere! Like, character consistency, anyone? Hence the fight.
> 
> *Eres un torpe = You're an idiot/dumbass/slowpoke (it's a kids show, I can't go beyond that lol)
> 
> See ya'll folks!


	10. What entails to be Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor's intervention leaves the paladins rather rattled, but nothing much can be done for now. Meanwhile, Allura reflects about the moment she connected with the Blue Lion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S3 - Right after "The Hunted"
> 
> A much needed talk between our two Blue Paladins.  
> And seriously, why was this so hard to write? I had the whole chapter planned, sat to write, and them [poof] everything vanished.  
> [sighs]

 It wasn't rare nowadays for sleep to skip Allura, the constant fighting and  coping with the stress an acceptable excuse for that, and she knew the same applied to every occupant of the Castle of Lions, even Coran. However, what kept her awake that night were not the nightmares, nor stress, but rather a need to reflect upon her recent achievement of becoming a paladin of Voltron as the pilot of Blue Lion.

Connecting with it is nothing like what she expected.

The lions being linked to her life force, she knew somewhat the personalities of each beast, so to speak, and the Blue Lion always felt like an easygoing and carefree spirit, much like her previous paladins. However, she'd never thought that to bond with her one needed to... practicaly beg for help. Because that's what she did in Thayserix, and from then on it felt like she had to lay bare before the lion, and thinking about it now sent a shudder through her body.

Every doubt, every weakness, every single failure... she had to show all of it, much to her disconfort. Being raised into royalty basically meant to mask her emotions and create a wall between her heart and the world, but all of that was thrown out the airlock once you were inside Blue. To think Lance bonded almost immediatly...

And there's Lance.

There are echoes in the bond, the thoughts of the previous Blue Paladin, scattered phrases that made her eyes burn with unshed tears everytime she remembers.

_'Am I good enough?'_

_'Maybe I'm just the 7th wheel'_

_'I want to make a difference'._

_'I wanna go home.'_

Staring at the never ending space before her, sitting on the floor of the bridge, Allura didn't notice when the door hissed open, nor the following surprised gasp or the footsteps of the new presence. Actually, she only realised someone else was there when he called her.

"Allura?"

The princess would never admit she shrieked.

"Lance!"

Stiffling a laugh, but failing miserably, Lance sat besides her, close enough she could see how his collarbones seemed more proeminent, but far enough to be respectful, and directed his gaze at the stars scattered across the dark horizon. He said nothing, just sat there, a forlorn look in his ocean blue eyes, as if reminiscing about days long gone.

Maybe he was. Coran once said the boy liked to look at the stars when homesick.

They stayed like that in silence, the only sound the neverending humming of the castleship and their tranquil breath, that moment of peace a rare occurence in their endeavors. The space was stil, glimmering with stars and a show of random colors at some distant galaxy. Maybe it's a magnetic storm, maybe it's one of the mysterious events of space, but all Allura saw was how it cast a soft glow of color on them. She enjoyed it, the silence, and also that distant heat that emanated from the still human beside her.

But other than his footsteps, Lance's not a silent prone person.

"How does it feel?" he asked out of nowhere, startling her.

"Excuse me?"

"Piloting the Blue Lion. How does it feel?"

"I don't know. What about the Red Lion?"

She expected him to do a full rant of how awesome it is. How fast Red goes, the fire power and the privilege of being a second in command. Instead, he clams up, but that doesn't surprise her either. After so many phoebs, she understands Lance is not a shallow boy with solely dreams of glory, but an individual that think things through, so much it echoed in the bond with Blue, and the jokes, the flirting, the attempt to make their lives lighter even for a second are his outlets. 

"Red is... complicated." He finaly replied, a distant look in his eyes and a small smile. "It's kind of a hardcore mother? Or a nice general? It's hard to explain... Just that she supports me in a fierce way. Very fierce way. No wonder she and Keith got along."

Allura giggled and nodded, understanding. That sounded like the temperamental machine.

"The bond..." she started, not really sure how to express it herself. "It's... disconcerting, to say the least."

"... I told you yelling wouldn't work."

"Oh, silence, Lance." she shoved him lightly, laughing, then sombered up again. "How did you manage it? Exposing all... your emotions like that?"

"Hmm... " he mused a few ticks, tapping on his chin. "I guess it was a relief."

"Relief? How come?"

He shrugged. "Well, when you're an immigrant, have four awesome sinblings and try to get into an elite school you start bottling things up to not worry your parents. But with Blue, I could just... be, you know? No judgement."

Allura hummed, kind of understanding where he came from, and left it at that, returning to their confortable silence and looking at the stars before her. That is, if Lance stoped talking. Because he didn't.

"I come from this tiny island called Cuba, and it's the prettiest place  _ever_ with beaches with clear water, warm weather, awesome food and super nice people. But it's... not easy to live there. So when I was six we moved to the States (it's a bigger country) and crashed at grandma's."

"She was sour when mom left to merry dad and live in Cuba, but when she saw how adorable me, my sisters and brothers were (but specialy me), grandma took us in right away. It was kinda hard at first, new home and language and all that jazz, but I fit in just fine. A bit of bullying here and there, nothing I couldn't deal with."

"I tried a lot of stuff when I was a pre-teen, and lots of them because of Rachel (my sis). She even convinced me to join a Circus School with her to learn Aerial Acrobatics, or whatever, and I was pretty good at it. But after visiting a Planetarium and doing piloting simulations there, and when Veronica (my other sis) got into the Garrison... I knew I had to become a pilot!"

Allura listened intently, trying to absorb and comprehend the verbiage coming from the boy, but not understanding everything. Nevertheless, she didn't interrupt. She finaly would understand one of her friends better and she won't let it pass!

"... and met Hunk in the Garrison's Preparatory Classes. You wouldn't believe how nervous he was! Anyway, we got into the Garrison, him with a good grade, me not so much, just barely. Then I met Keith, and other amazing people... That's when I started doubting myself, actualy. Even after two years, I still didn't make into Fighter Class on my own, and our teacher was not the nicest, ya'know? But then we found Blue, and the rest is history!"

And finaly, he stoped, followed by an amicable silence, one that neither wanted to interrupt.

Facing the vastness of space, but in reality studying Lance from the corners of her eyes, the princess mused about his story. Indeed, there was nothing that screamed 'UNIC' as far as she knew, just an average life with happy and sad moments, no impressive feats of courage, strenght or brains (although she wondered what Aerial Acrobatics was). No wonder he might have felt out of place in the castle.

But the catch is: he wasn't. He was the one that made their hectic life bearable with his jokes and the antics he pulled with Hunk and Pidge and reminded everyone what they were, their exclusive sniper and sometimes tactical advisor (surprisingly). However, not knowing how to convey it in words, she rested her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it lightly, and her reward was a smile, the most sincere one until that moment, even with the deep tiredness embedded in his eyes and the sagging posture. 

Smiling back, she scooted a bit closer, the warmth coming from his body a confort in the chilly bridge, and decided to disclose some of her stories from Altea, most of them about the craziness her and some friends would cause in the castle, and being paid back with amusing tales about Lance's family and some shenanigans with Hunk. They didn't even notice how their laughter echoed in the hallways outside, making one awake gremlin grunt, and one mustached man smile.

What Allura expected to be a silent, lonely time became one full of joy and laughter, enveloped by the faint scent of Altean soap.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One thing that I noticed during "The Hunted": Blue Lion only opened up to Allura after she basicaly begged her for it.  
> Then, in S8, Blaytz said the Blue Lion saw the best in you, even if yourself couldn't.  
> And then there's that thing, that the first step to 'mental' healing is actually admitting you need help.  
> SO, I concluded: to bond with the Blue Lion you have to show your weakness. ALL of it. And most times that make you feel weaker and vulnerable, and I wanted to take on Allura and Lance's view on this (and expanding the background that DW kind of forgot.)
> 
> Well, this was a short ch., but I rather liked it! Now, it'll take some time 'till the next update, because I have a thesis to write and I only have until [checks calendar], well, this month. So, yeah, see y'all folks!

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a kudo to get me smiling.  
> Leave a comment to get my heart soaring.  
> Leave a constructive review to get me grouned lol
> 
> Peace out, yo'!


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